Computerworld — Healthcare providers and aeronautics industry association members this month urged the Federal Communications Commission to quickly approve their plan for setting aside bandwidth for a so-called mobile body area network technology, or MBAN.

The FCC proposed an MBAN network as part of its first national broad plan that was unveiled last year.

The frequencies sought for the MBAN network are currently used by several private and public sector organizations for aeronautical mobile telemetry and federal radiolocation tasks, and by amateur radio users.

The aeronautics industry, which uses the bands to dispatch telemetry information during aircraft testing, had initially put up the greatest resistance to the FCC proposal. The Aerospace & Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council (AFTRCC) argued that the aeronautics industry uses the bands to dispatch telemetry information during aircraft testing.

Over the past six months, however, healthcare industry officials and AFTRCC, which represents aircraft and aeronautical equipment manufacturers such as Raytheon (RTN), Boeing (BA) and Cessna, reached an agreement on mitigation measures that would help manage any interference that could result from sharing the wireless spectrum.

AFTRCC now supports the MBAN proposal, said Delroy Smith, technical product design lead for Philips Healthcare's (PHG) informatics and patient-monitoring business.

"The big issue is device control. One of the fundamental fears is we were going to have millions of these devices around the country polluting their spectrum. They need the spectrum to be clean in order to be safe," Smith said.

The MBAN radio spectrum would create a wireless body sensor network for remotely monitoring critically and chronically ill people via small wireless devices so that medical workers can track the person's health status as well as take swift action in emergencies.

The disposable, wireless devices would monitor an array of physiological data, such as temperature, pulse, blood glucose level, blood pressure, respiratory function and a variety of other physiological metrics.

Representatives of Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare and AFTRCC met this month with members of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology to present joint health care and aeronautics industry modifications to the FCC's proposed rules.

Smith said that 96% of hospitals aren't near aeronautical mobile telemetry (AMT) operations, and thus wouldn't affect radio traffic. Under the agreement, the remaining health care facilities would create a plan to notify AMT operations of MBAN use, and follow a procedure to halt any disruptions to aeronautical traffic.

The proposed rules also include methods for centrally controlling wireless healthcare devices by using electronic keys to limit who can access the spectrum.

Continue Reading