June 8th, 2009
Low-power Bluetooth spec will be at heart of telehealth solutions
Attention healthcare IT professionals. This post isn’t about a technology that’s green per se, but about a low-energy wireless transmission specification that is useful AND just happens to skimp on power consumption.
Surprisingly, it involves Bluetooth. Yes, the thing controlling all those accessories that sap the battery life right out of your mobile phone. Today at least.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is working on a low-power version of the specification (poised for adoption late this year), which you probably know. After 10 months of evaluation of various low-power wireless alternatives, that version has been selected by Continua Health Alliance, which is working on a framework for interoperable telehealth solutions. You know, things like activity monitors and heart rate monitors that are supposed to send data to services that keep tabs on your health, or lack thereof.
Anyway, Bluetooth low energy, which won’t tax your mobile devices as much as the current version when it communicates, will be part of version 2.0 of the Continua Health Alliance Design Guidelines.
Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist in the New York area with more than 20 years experience covering the high-tech industry. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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