Plan for Wireless Spectrum for Dedicated Medical Devices Announced by Genachowski
The U.S. could be the first country to consider dedicating spectrum to Medical Body Area Networks when the FCC looks at adopting new rules at next week’s open meeting that would permit more intensive use of the spectrum for wireless medical devices, Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday in comments delivered at George Washington University Hospital. The small wireless devices will enable continuous monitoring of patients even after they leave the hospital. “MBANs will improve patient care, increase patient mobility and encourage medical innovation,” Genachowski said. “It’s no exaggeration. By unleashing spectrum for MBAN we can save lives and lower healthcare costs.”
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Next week’s vote on establishing service rules and an allocation of spectrum is the culmination of a multi-industry effort to “foster innovation” by allowing compatible users to share the 2360-2400 MHz band, the FCC said in a statement. The order would provide wireless medical device manufacturers with increased spectrum capacity and reliability by letting them streamline their product development, which for many years has operated on a variety of frequencies, a spokesman said.
"Without spectrum, we don’t have MBANs and without smart spectrum policies, we don’t provide incentives for companies like GE and Philips” to invest their R&D dollars in this technology, Genachowski said. The FCC will be moving forward on granting “broad, automatic licenses” so that companies can have more leeway to “test spectrum-based ideas.” The FCC has also worked with the Food and Drug Administration on the first-ever memorandum of understanding between the two agencies, committing them both to work together when it comes to medical communications devices. “I'm pleased that our relationship with the FDA continues,” Genachowski said.
An MBAN is a small scale network that provides short-range wireless connections among devices in the proximity of a patient. The current use of several wired sensors “literally tethers the patient to the bed,” GE Healthcare Chief Technology Officer Michael Harsh said at the event. Wired devices bring infection control issues, restricted mobility, increased stress and make it harder for doctors to work, he said. “I can’t even get my stethoscope on the chest anymore,” said Dr. Richard Katz, GWU Hospital director of cardiology. “We have no room for it."
Those present at Thursday’s talk had grand ideas for how the technology could be used: Fetal telemetry would be a noninvasive way to continuously monitor a baby’s health; “Lifeline Home Care Pendants” would collect health information for elderly patients and those with chronic disease, giving them more freedom and independence; and early warning systems would provide continuous monitoring to prevent sudden deterioration of a patient’s condition, FCC and medical representatives said.
Deviating from prepared remarks, Genachowski told the crowd of doctors, reporters and medical device makers that he was pre-med in college and was certified as an EMT. “Particularly, my work on ambulances and my work in hospitals early in my career gave me a tremendous appreciation … of what the medical profession does,” he said. Now as chairman he spends a lot of his time on the intersection of communications, technology and healthcare, he said.