Vision - January/February 2009 - (Page 54) tech speak defining the digital world ] • [ By Murray Slovick InMedica, a division of IMS Research, says manufacturer revenues from production of consumer medical devices will reach more than $5 billion by 2011, with a CAGR of almost 10 percent. Stockbyte/Getty Images Alliance, a group of technology, medical device and health and fitness companies dedicated to enabling interoperable healthcare products. The list of promoting members includes such CE suppliers as Cisco, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Omron, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp and Texas Instruments. Medical Challenges I One real engineering challenge these CE companies face in designing consumer medical electronic devices is insuring low power consumption. First, in most cases the device should be portable. Second, portability requires maximizing battery life by reducing power consumption, often into the low microamps for standby power. Third, t happens to all of us sooner or later: the battery should be small since it often is sickness and aging. With the “baby a significant component of the weight of a boomer” segment of the population— portable device. there are about 78 million people A related technical challenge is that when in the U.S. born between 1946 and devices are small and un-tethered, they need 1964—that soon may require increased lev- to be connected somehow. One way is plugels of supervision and medical intervention. ging into USB, but, increasingly, wireless Consumer electronics (CE) companies have appears to be the method of choice. In parbecome interested in the healthcare mar- ticular the use of Bluetooth wireless techket—a sector expected to perform nologies in healthcare has gained well regardless of the economy. notable attention. The range of The increasing prevalence of diadevices using wireless technologies runs from portable blood pressure betes, hypertension, respiratory discuffs and weighing scales to in-body eases and obesity in the population implants, sports/fitness monitors as a whole also is driving growth in and “bio sensing” watches using Bluthe market for consumer home-use etooth to transmit data. medical devices. According to an Murray Slovick As these devices get smaller and annual study by InMedica, a division of IMS Research, manufacturer reve- more integrated, engineers must explicitly nues from production of consumer medical tackle EMI, (electromagnetic interference) devices will reach more than $5 billion by issues, RFI (radio frequency interference) issues and compliance to a host of stan2011, with a CAGR of almost 10 percent. In the U.S. alone, healthcare spending is dards. Protecting circuitry from accidental forecast to increase from $500 billion a year shock or other hazards (e.g., resistance to to $685 billion by 2020, pushing insurance liquids of all sorts) also comes into play as companies to move patients out of the hos- reliability is an especially important concern pital as quickly as possible and encourage in the consumer medical environment. after-care monitoring to be done at home. In designing a product that will be used The CE industry is gearing up to make a by the patient, CE engineers have to rememnotable push into the market. Consider, for ber that the person using it is not as savvy instance, the roster of the Continua Health as a trained physician or nurse in a hospital. Consumer Medical Electronics While much of the equipment currently in use employs touch-screen and digital interfaces, there’s still a need for analog controls to provide immediate feedback, such as a push button, because the user needs to “feel” something happening, reassuring him or her that the device is working in cases when they may not be able to look at it. Another design factor is that the user may be an elderly person. In the case of a blood glucose meter, for example, an elderly person may have reduced vision because that trait often is paired with diabetes. So the designer may want to select a nice big display. But by specifying a big bright backlight, the designer then becomes victim to the whole issue of power management and battery life. A subset of the consumer medical device market is telehealth, defined as the delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technologies. Using telehealth, people with heart disease or diabetes can transmit indicators such as blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose levels, temperature, weight and respiration from home over a computer or mobile phonebased network to health professionals for analysis. CEA’s publication Five Technology Trends to Watch 2009 reports that MIT researchers believe cell phones have the potential to identify individual illnesses and medical conditions by reporting changes in gait, hand tremors or speech patterns, all of which could indicate a physical change and possible health problem in the user. Come to CES Want to learn more? On January 10th at the 2009 International CES in Las Vegas, the first annual Silvers Summit Exhibition and Conference will showcase advanced technologies for the boomer market. Visit SilversSummit. com. Also at CES we guarantee you won’t be rolling snake eyes by attending the session “Our Robot Will See You Now—How Technology Is Creating Your Personal Hospital,” (Thursday, January 8, 10:30–11:30am, Lando 4201-4202, The Venetian). • www.ce.org 54 January/February 2009 http://www.ce.org
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