While many companies can claim to be working on developing wireless technologies for incorporation into medical devices, none have offered to allow a manufacturer to incorporate the technology into their products at a potential cost of less than $10 a unit.
Until now.
Enter Cambridge Consultants (Cambridge, UK/Cambridge, Massachusetts) with what it terms its "breakthrough software solution," the Vena platform. The Vena is comprised of a single chip that is designed to allow devices, such as pressure monitors, to transmit data wirelessly.
This new development the company said gives consumers, especially those with chronic conditions, the ability to monitor their own health accurately, systematically and independently. The platform uses low-cost wireless technology and will allow devices to deliver medical readings to a central monitor located in the home, or even to an online health record such as Google Health or Microsoft Health Vault.
Paul Williamson, head of wireless medical at Cambridge Consultants, told Medical Device Daily that his company is confident that the $10 price point will attract many buyers to the technology. "We think that's quite an attractive price point from a materials point of view," Williamson said.
Williamson said that past generations of wireless technology have been relatively high cost because there have been no industry standards for such technology, making it for the most part proprietary and thus, expensive, or as he put it, "low-volume and high-cost."
The Vena platform takes advantage of high-volume Bluetooth technology, and Cambridge noted that it embeds both the emerging IEEE11073 standard, which ensures compatibility of data exchanged between different types of devices, and the emerging Bluetooth Medical Device Profile, which has been optimized for the secure transport of medical data, onto the single chip.
IEEE11073 Personal Health Data is a framework of standards that addresses transport-independent application and information profiles between personal telehealth devices and monitors/managers (e.g., health appliance, set-top box, cell phone, personal computer). Device profiles include pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitor, weighing scale and thermometer.
Because Bluetooth technology is so cheap, Williamson noted that the company is able to provide "a low cost "consumer price point for the platform hardware."
Aside from the low price point, Williamson said Cambridge's platform also brings unique "compatibility and interoperability" to the table. "I think this is clearly an important factor in the medical device arena."
When producing a device, Williamson said that in general, a manufacturer only owns one end of the system and wants it to be able to interoperate, "so what the combination of the Bluetooth profile, which is one standard, and the IEEE standards, which define the way different devices behave, brings to the table is that compatibility."
The Vena platform can be used with multiple devices providing a connection to online records through a monitoring station, home PC or set-top box. In addition to Bluetooth, the platform incorporates complete support for a range of other connections. Full TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) implementation allows wi-fi or ethernet connections. Cable connections via UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) or USB also can be added. The platform can even be used to transmit data via mobile phone for health and fitness applications on the move.
"The Vena platform can easily be built into devices at any stage of the design or production process," Williamson said. "This ease of implementation makes it possible that medical devices with wireless capability could be commercially available before the end of 2008."
Since the platform incorporates Bluetooth, Williamson also noted that the system did not require any modifications from its European iteration for use in the U.S. "[Bluetooth] operates in an internationally license-free band, which means you can produce a single device which will operate in multiple geographies."
The platform also is capable of delivering a complete display out of the box, which means that device manufacturers now simply need to add their sensor of choice and the device is wireless-ready.
It's this user-friendliness, along with the uniformity, that Williamson said would attract device companies to increasingly begin incorporating wireless technology into their products, which he said they have been reticent to do up to this point. "They can effectively fit them into their devices with [a] relatively low level of understanding of the wireless technology required. It's the ability to integrate wireless with ease."
Williamson stressed that the Bluetooth Medical Device Profile and the IEEE are still emerging standards, but the company wants to let manufacturers know that the platform is out there and may become a de rigueur component to add to a product in the near future "We believe that device manufacturers will want to design in the [platform] effectively pre-emptively so that as soon as this technology is available and ready to go, they will already have incorporated it."