The assumption by some medical device manufactures is the WLAN adapter that may be used by the medical device just works like any enterprise WLAN adapter in a laptop.
Yes and No.
The real challenge often lies in the fact that the WLAN adapter is used in a different environment than the WLAN enabled laptop outside of the patient room…that often just sits there and is rolled into the room..maybe.
More than often the WLAN enabled medical device will be used inside a patient room, maybe on a patient (patient worn monitor), and will be used while the patient is up and walking down the hallway, down the elevator, and even down to areas like radiology. What this means is the wireless signal is often attenuated by the patient’s body (water), has to get through the glass, tile, metal, often inside a room and down the hallway to make the connection to the access point; let alone when the patient is mobile and roaming.
Several factors come into play.
1. How well the radio, antenna, and design factored into the real life challenging healthcare RF environment.
2. Are the roaming algorithms sufficient to take into account a highly mobile environment while maintaining a secure connection to the network?
3. Did the actual WLAN site design take into account the actual nature of the materials of the building, area of coverage requirements, the nature of the need to accommodate a -65dBm signal strength, and if using 802.11a/g/n, accommodate for the density of design requirements for 802.11a?
4. How is the network designed to accommodate all application requirements for the correct quality of service.
5. Who is managing the changes on the actual network after deployment that will ensure that the WLAN enabled medical device still operates for the intended use?
Integra Systems, Inc., feels the WLAN enabled medical device industry is somewhat in a perfect storm as there a lot of factors to consider here. All this boils down to the correct design of the WLAN medical device, the right overall network design for the application intended and overall management and documentation of the process and deployment. All areas where we have been down the road….before.
