Question

​how dow wireless networks affect the health care Industry

Answer 1

Nowadays the wireless systems for medical applications has been rapidly increasing. With a number of advantages over wired alternatives, including: ease of use, reduced risk of infection, reduced risk of failure, reduce patient discomfort, enhance mobility and low cost of care delivery, wireless applications bring forth exciting possibilities for new applications in medical market.
            Portable devices such as heart rate monitors, pulse oximeters, spirometers and blood pressure monitors are essential instruments in intensive care. Traditionally, the sensors for these instruments are attached to the patient by wires; and the patient sequentially becomes bed-bound. In addition, whenever patient needs to be moved, all monitoring device has to be disconnected and then reconnected later. Nowadays, all of these time-consuming jobs could be terminated and patients could be liberated from instrumentation and bed by wireless technology. Integrated wireless technology, these wireless devices could communicate with a gateway that connects to the medical center’s network and transmits data to health data stores for monitoring, control, or evaluating in real time or offline after storage.
            Continuous and pervasive medical monitoring is now available with the present of wireless healthcare systems and telemedicine services. In emergency situations, real-time health parameter is crucial. With wireless continuous medical monitoring systems, patients’ information such as blood pressure, heart rate, and electrocardiogram can be sent instantly to specialized medical centers to store and process properly. Medical emergencies can be detected sooner and proper treatment can be applied timely. Health care effectiveness in several situations is improved significantly with the present of wireless communication technologies.
            Wireless technology could be the best solution for mass emergency situations like natural or human-included disasters and military conflict where patients’ records such as previous medication history, identification and other vital information are necessary. With the assistant of hand held devices in which wireless network integrated, the amount of time the doctors need to identify the problem, trace back the medication history of the patient and consult fellow doctors will be reduced significantly. Moreover, databases of patients that can be built up by continuous medical monitoring will be accessed and updated easily. As a result, the amount of paper works required and the duplication of patient record will be dropped down.