Seems like just another attempt for General Electric to show their "proprietary uniqueness", while driving up costs for everybody in healthcare? Are we sure that they are going to be open about this? Since Patient Monitoring has been somewhat commoditized; they (General Electric) have to hang onto some semblance of uniqueness. Would General Electric allow Philips and all the others in the patient monitoring space to have and share this spectrum? Hello WMTS? (Wireless Medical Telemetry Service) Think about what happened there! WMTS drove costs out of sight in moving from VHF and UHF, yet was a solution that was limited with no ability to spectrum plan and or provide real time SNMP 24/7/365 monitoring.
Please read carefully the white paper authored by Dr. Baker and I over two years ago surrounding the "design criteria" for Misssion Critical Medical Grade Networks. While a lot has transpired, the bottom line remains is that proprietary spectrum, i.e. WMTS has it's issues and simply is not the future from a risk and cost analsyis. (Author's opinion) So the bottom line question is why do we need again "dedicated spectrum", when valid and viable commercially available technologies as well as spectrum are available?
Download Wp_Medical-grade_Life-critical_Wireless_Networks_SteveBaker
Technology companies led by General Electric Co.want to revolutionize the nascent medical- monitoring industry by taking to the airwaves. Standing in the way is Boeing Co.
GE’s health-care unit has asked the Federal Communications Commission to allow devices that transmit patients’ vital signs to share the 2360MHz to 2400MHz range of the electromagnetic spectrum, now used by Chicago-based Boeing to test the safety of planes. It’s the only section of the spectrum where remote monitoring would be cost-effective, according to GE Healthcare.
Boeing, the largest U.S. aircraft maker, is urging the FCC not to allow new uses of the space. Transmitting medical signals on the spectrum would interfere with flight-test data, causing delays that would cost $50,000 an hour, said Audrey Allison, the company’s frequency-management services director. The disputed bandwidth may bring the U.S. as much as $6 billion should the FCC decide to auction it, said Coleman Bazelon, an industry consultant at Brattle Groupin Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“This is a technical issue, and they’ll have to battle it out,” said Robert Litan, an economist and Internet policy expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “It might look like a fight about spectrum, but at the end of the day, it’s all about money.”
U.S. airwaves transmit everything from television signals and mobile-phone calls to FM radio and military communications. The airware are sliced into different frequencies or bands, for specific frequencies so your phone call doesn’t interfere with a top-secret spy mission, for example.
Public Safety
The FCC is reallocating portions of the spectrum to unclog wireless communications networks and enhance public safety, selling off large chunks in auctions that have yielded billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury.
The band used by Boeing and coveted by GE may be worth $3 billion to $6 billion at auction, Bazelon said. Whether the FCC will even hold an auction isn’t known.
The agency will hold a public meeting with the Food and Drug Administration July 26 and 27 to discuss using the airwaves for remote monitoring. The systems wirelessly register vital statistics, such as heart rate or blood-oxygen saturation.
The technology, already used in some hospitals, promises to cut costly doctor visits for millions of patients by allowing blood pressure, heart rates and other vital signs to be checked at a distance, potentially saving lives and billions of dollars. (Hoglund, if this is not approved by the FCC, then where is this used?)
The devices “measure physiological signals continuously,” said Munesh Makhija, general manager of systems and wireless at GE Healthcare, based in Chalfont St. Giles, in the U.K. near London. They would “make work flow a lot more productive for the hospital,” he said in an interview. (Hoglund..really..how?) (Why not use dual mode 802.11b/g low power to CDMA/GSM/GPRS?) How do you know that this spectrum can not be hacked and what encryption and or security certificates can be passed on an enterprise level?). Certainly you can not imagine that this in the headlights at this time).
Cost Savings
Wireless monitoring would make it simpler to keep tabs on patients, especially those who can’t or won’t report on their own, Makhija said. Such systems have the potential to generate cost savings for the health system, he said. (Hoglund, can you generate a pro-forma around this?)
Cutting down on the equipment used to monitor health also can aid infection control, since “you would not have to clean and re-clean cables, tubes and connectors,” Makhija said.
An analysis by Litan of Brookings estimated that remote monitoring technologies may save as much as $197 billion in health-care costs over 25 years. (Hoglund, where is the pro-forma around this)
“It’s a really enticing technology,” said Bernie Liebler, director of technology and regulatory affairs at the Advanced Medical Technology Association, a Washington-based industry group. “This would allow that kind of continuous monitoring while people are walking around” and carrying out normal day- to-day activities, he said. (Hoglund, this already can be done, dual mode 802.11b/g/CDMA/GSM/GPRS, 3G/4G)
Question of Power
When the agency first opened discussion on use of the spectrum, it suggested alternative bands for medical monitoring. GE Healthcare said those options are unworkable.
“Chips operating at those frequencies consume too much power,” making them too costly to develop and implement widely, said Neal Seidl, a wireless architect at GE Healthcare. (Hoglund, "this is incorrect", power consumption has drastically been reduced with low power 802.11b/g chipsets and processors designed around these)
Boeing, which says it needs exclusive use of the spectrum to ensure the safety of millions of travelers who fly on its airplanes, expects a decision from the FCC “in the next few months,” Allison said in a May interview. (Hoglund Feel safety on airliners using this spectrum is priority number 1, as all other commercially available technologies can provide the benefit described at a lower price point and reduced risk.)
The FCC has no set date on deciding on GE Healthcare’s request, Julius Knapp, chief of the commission’s office of engineering and technology, said in an interview.
International Business Machines Corp.of Armonk, New York, Royal Philips Electronics NV of Amsterdam, and Nordic Semiconductor ASA of Trondheim, Norway, are also developing technologies to transmit a continuous flow of health information using the spectrum space. (Hoglund the bottom line is to be able to provide technologies to wireless transform the healthcare space at a cost effective model that is open standards, not locked into any specific company. The issue is that this may not be "entirely" open via the companies, as they as they stand alone desire to provide some sort of competitive proprietary advantage. This is not in the best interests of healthcare to reduce costs and decrease risk.)
Monitoring Market
An FCC decision to make the spectrum available for medical use would boost development of remote monitoring, a market expected to reach $4.6 billion in annual revenue by 2014, according to TMNG Global, a consulting company based in Overland Park, Kansas.
If the FCC rules in favor of GE Healthcare, Boeing would pursue its legal options, Allison said. She declined to say what those choices might be. Agency decisions can be challenged in court.
“We’re optimistic that we will find a workable solution, because it’s so important to protect our ability to do flight tests in the U.S.,” Allison said.
