Bluetooth technology is alive and well in healthcare. The short-range communications technology that replaces cables connecting portable and/or fixed devices while maintaining high levels of security—at a speed averaging 1 Mbps—delivers to market robustness, low power and low cost, just as the need for mobility in healthcare is rising due to the adoption of new forms of healthcare service delivery, including telemedicine, home healthcare and managed care.
According to a new report from Infiniti Research Limited, these new diagnostic and treatment modalities also have increased the need for flexibility and leveraged usage of staff driving the healthcare industry to adopt Bluetooth technology. Since most mobile devices today are already equipped with Bluetooth, the report finds healthcare organizations and patients are leveraging the technology to perform various tasks, such as medication management, or measuring, transferring, and accessing patient records in a wide range of healthcare environments.
Entitled "Bluetooth Market in Healthcare Industry 2008-2012," the report forecasts the size of the Bluetooth market in the healthcare Industry through 2012.
This Infiniti research follows a Silicon Republic report earlier this month that the Continua Health Alliance will adopt Bluetooth as a healthcare device standard in version 2.0 of its guidelines for low-energy wireless communication. Chosen after a 10-month review process, Bluetooth currently is the only wireless technology specification included by Continua.
Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, recently told IT Web: “Continua's choice of Bluetooth low-energy technology—a specification in development at this time and expected to be adopted by the end of the year—underscores the excitement and need for this Bluetooth wireless standard in the telehealth arena.”
HealthcareGoesMobile.com wants to know how healthcare organizations are leveraging Bluetooth technology at the mobile point of care? How important is Bluetooth to the continued success of telehealth rollouts? Aside from medication management and transferring patient records, what creative applications has your organization found for the technology?
John Farrell participates in HealthcareGoesMobile.com as a community correspondent through Intel’s paid sponsorship with MedTech Publishing Company.
