U.S. Rules for MBAN’s validate potential of mHealth.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed to allocate radiofrequency spectrum and establish service and technical rules for the operation of Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) systems. Why is the FCC interested in this area? They envision that MBANs would provide a platform for the wireless networking of multiple body sensors used for monitoring a patient’s physiological data, primarily in health care facilities.

MBAN’s could be used to monitor an array of physiological data, such as temperature, pulse, blood glucose level, blood pressure, respiratory function and a variety of other physiological metrics. MBAN systems would primarily be used in health care facilities, with the potential also of being used in other patient care/monitoring circumstances. Unlike traditional medical telemetry systems which rely on separate uncoordinated links for each physiological function being monitored, MBAN systems could serve to wirelessly monitor all of the desired data of a single patient, which could then be aggregated and wirelessly transmitted to a remote location for evaluation.

Using MBAN systems to eliminate much of the wired cables that typically connect patients to monitoring equipment and to facilitate the aggregation and transfer of physiological data will offer several clinical benefits, including improved patient mobility and comfort, reduced risks of infection, reduced clinical errors, and reduced patient monitoring costs.

The Notice of the FCC seeks comment on options for accommodating MBAN operations in several frequency bands, and on the amount of spectrum that should be allocated for such use. More specifically, the Notice seeks comment on the feasibility of using the 2360-2400 MHz; 2300-2305 MHz and 2395-2400 MHz; the 2400-2483.5 MHz; or 5150-5250 MHz bands for this purpose, and on various licensing schemes that would be appropriate for any of these bands under consideration. In addition, the Notice seeks comment on tentative service and eligibility rules that would be similar in many respects to those for other wireless body-worn and implanted medical devices operating in the MedRadio Service in the 401-406 MHz bands.

This action by the Commission is by Notice of Proposed Rule Making (FCC 09-57).

mHealth is opening up a huge medical knowledge world.

On the mHealth Initiative Spring Seminar in Boston Executive Director Peter Waegemann positioned twelve key clusters for mobile phone applications in healthcare. Brian Dolan from MobiHealthnews made the following interesting notes:

1) Patient Communications: Using mobile phones for accessing resources before a visit, including appointment reminders, setting an agenda for the visit, CCR, email reminders, text message reminders, questions for the caregiver and patient education.
2) Access to web-based resources: Typical use of mobiles in healthcare today. Using the phone to access reference resources.
3) Point of Care documentation for physicians and clinicians: Patient history, transmitting data via mobile.
4) Disease Management: Applications that help patients manage chronic conditions like diabetes, dermatology, asthma, smoking cessation, etc.
5) Point of Care Education: Teaching applications, similar to using Twitter to live tweet operations.
6) Professional Communication: Online networks like Twitter used as a place for pharmacists, colleagues, lab technicians, hospital workers and others to consult with each other.
7) Administrative Applications: Improving efficiency of workflow at the office. Mobile clinical assistants, etc.
8 ) Financial Apps: Applications that help consumers deal with the financials of healthcare, understanding their insurance, etc.
9) Ambulance/EMS: Connecting the EHR to emergency workers to give them a clearer picture of the patient’s history.
10) Public Health: Using mobiles to track diseases, epidemics, bioterrorism and disseminate information about outbreaks.
11) Research: Clinical research opportunities through data collection from mobiles.
12) Body Area Network applications: Wearable sensors that collect biometric data and interface with mobile phones to record and transmit.