Bluetooth In Medical Devices: Bluetooth is Changing Healthcare
Bluetooth low energy technology is different from other wireless technologies because it combines a standardized technology designed from the beginning for ultra-low power batteries with a new architecture based on sensor data acquisition. Bluetooth low energy technology will also be integrated into most portable devices.The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) working group has produced profiles for use in healthcare, fitness, and medical devices, and is working on profiles for other areas. Although these Bluetooth devices are not directly compatible with IEEE 11073, the SIG is drafting a white paper that will detail how data conversion and compatible mapping can be done so that systems using the IEEE 11073 standard can also use Bluetooth data.
Lowest achievable power consumption
From physical design to usage patterns, everything is designed around keeping power consumption to a minimum. To reduce power consumption, Bluetooth low energy devices spend most of their time in sleep mode. When an event occurs, the device will wake up and a short message will be sent to the gateway, PC or smartphone. The maximum/peak power consumption is less than 15mA, and the average power consumption is about 1μA. Active power consumption is reduced to one tenth of the power consumption of traditional Bluetooth technology. In low duty cycle applications, a single coin cell CR2032 battery can last 5-10 years.
Wireless coexistence
Bluetooth technology, wireless LAN, IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee and many proprietary wireless technologies use the unlicensed 2.4GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. With so many technologies using the same radio frequency band within the same radio space, the presence of interference can degrade radio performance (latency and throughput) due to the need for error correction and retransmission. In demanding applications, interference can be reduced through frequency planning and special antenna solutions. Both traditional bluetooth technology and low energy bluetooth technology adopt AFH, which makes bluetooth transmission stable and reliable. AFH also minimizes the interference of Bluetooth technology with other wireless ISM band radio technologies.
Ease of use and integration
In the Bluetooth SIG (Bluetooth SIG), a set of standardized medical and health-related health services are defined, including blood oxygen, blood glucose, heart rate, body temperature, cycling and other health-related protocols
Regardless of its low power consumption, wireless coexistence, ease of use and other characteristics, it is very suitable for wearable devices that focus on personal health detection and hospital medical equipment.Bluetooth low energy technology is a powerful application catalyst that will transform our wireless application experience. Its low power consumption and low cost, as well as its mature and stable communication technology, make it an ideal choice for low-power medical applications in homes and hospitals.
