Health Informatics - Point-Of-Care Medical Device Communication - Technical Report - Guidelines for the Use of RF Wireless Technology

The following Guidance document addresses the use of radio frequency 1 (RF) wireless technology for the transport of medical data both to and from point-of-care (PoC) medical devices. The context of such wireless medical data transport can range from home- or mobile-based healthcare to in hospital ambulatory and stationary situations. The intent of the guidance document is to be global with respect to wireless spectrum and equipment, although working group participation and expertise have favored detail of scenarios from the US. At the time of this Guidance document several applicable RF wireless technologies exist with a range of capabilities and characteristics, and in different stages of maturity, standardization, and adoption in healthcare. It is recognized that RF technologies are rapidly evolving, and new options may become available (or sufficiently established) after the publication of this Guidance document. The recommendations, therefore, avoid being overly prescriptive and instead attempt to assist medical device manufacturers, wireless equipment manufacturers, healthcare providers, government agencies and any other end-user of this document to make reasonable judgments regarding performance and practical implementation of wireless solutions. The Guidance document defines specific use cases to estimate, compare, and contrast performance of known technologies operating on wireless personal area (WPAN), wireless local area (WLAN), wireless metropolitan area (WMAN), and wireless wide area (WWAN) networks. Major considerations are 1) the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements (reliability, latency, priority, bandwidth) associated with the data being transported, 2) the expected performance (power, link range, throughput, link establishment and maintenance) of the wireless technology, and 3) the specific needs and resources of the end user. Related issues include network architecture, EMI/EMC, coexistence with other data streams, security, cost, power consumption, and technology configurability. Performance summaries for specific wireless technologies that support defined use cases are not intended as an endorsement of optimal solution because different needs, resources, sizes, and environments cannot be comprehensively addressed. This overview document is meant to be a foundation and reference for several follow-on IEEE 11073.3.5.x standards that will profile specific classes of off-the-shelf RF wireless technologies for medical data transport. Importantly, this guidance document is not envisioned to be periodically updated, but instead will act as a source of information for the follow-on IEEE 11073-0305.x standards that will supplant it. Periodic updates will be performed on the IEEE 11073- 0305.x standards only.