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INTRODUCTION

Key Points

  • Existing wireless technologies include infrared, WiFi, and Bluetooth as well as the protocols used for cell phone communications.

  • New technologies are developing that will permit wireless coverage over wide areas and increase the transmission speed of data.

Wireless networking is rapidly coming of age, and wireless network access is built into new portable computers as well as handheld devices including PDAs. Wireless access points are becoming available in public places such as neighborhoods and plans are underway to create wireless networks encompassing entire cities, such as one envisioned for Philadelphia.

Wireless networking technologies include infrared (which is the same technology used in TV remote controls), the WiFi family of protocols, such as 802.11b and 802.11g, and Bluetooth (Fig. 4-1). The 3G specification has been developed for cellular devices, and provides for enhanced data transfer speeds in email, instant messaging, and web browsing. It is called 3G to indicate that is the third generation of cellular communication, following the first generation analog and second generation digital. The 802 family of protocols has also been extended to provide for wide area coverage by the development of the 802.16 standard (Fig. 4-1).

Figure 4-1

Wireless technologies include infrared, the 802.11 (WiFi) family, and Bluetooth networking.

Wireless networking is particularly suited to the medical environment, where providers are highly mobile and dependent on a rich stream of data generated continuously during daily activities. There are huge inefficiencies built into current approaches to patient care. A physician, nurse, or ancillary provider can spend a significant amount of time moving among patients, when access to patient data is unavailable, and then use a separate chunk of time in data acquisition and transcription. Wireless solutions have been developed for PDAs and other handhelds (described in Chap. 17) that continuously download laboratory, pharmacy, and radiographic data, eliminating the need for time specifically dedicated to data acquisition.

Wireless interfaces between devices and central servers are also becoming available. Bedside infusion pumps can store and/or forward information pertaining to alarms and rates using wireless interfaces. Many of the medical devices used at patients’ bedsides, such as ultrasound, EEG, and ECG can now be equipped with wireless cards permitting them to communicate with central analysis and storage units (Fig. 4-2).

Figure 4-2

Many wireless devices are now wireless enabled.

Radio frequency ID (RFID) tags are just beginning to be deployed in some hospitals and used to track patients, drugs, devices, inventory, and personnel. Implantable radio frequency identification chips have just been approved by the FDA as a way for patients to carry medical information with them at all times. A hospital or physician can interrogate the chip, given the appropriate equipment, and ...

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