The Federal Communications Commission has announced dedicating the wireless spectrum band 2360-2400 MHz as Medical Body Area Network (MBAN). Hospitals have been using wireless sensors attached to patients to monitor their activities and status. However, having wireless data from patients compete with other wireless information used in the hospital overwhelms hospital wireless systems. Not only that the technology is limited and constricted to the hospital setting. With MBANs hospitals can use wireless monitoring and mobile technology to offer better care to patients, increasing their mobility, comfort and care. Monitoring can continue for patients from critical care to any changes in care settings including after being discharged home.
According to the FCC: “The MBAN concept would allow medical
professionals to place multiple inexpensive wireless sensors at
different locations on or around a patient’s body and to aggregate data
from the sensors for backhaul to a monitoring station using a variety of
communications media. We conclude that an MBAN represents an
improvement over traditional medical monitoring devices (both wired and
wireless) in several ways, and will reduce the cost, risk and complexity
associated with health care.”
The US is the first nation is the world to dedicate the wireless bandwidth for medical devices, and is rightly being hailed as a step in the right direction.
Here is an excellent forum on MBAN and its benefits:
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