New-Tech Europe | June 2017

Medical Devices Special Edition

or keyboards, Bluetooth Smart was designed to be an extremely power-efficient protocol for transmitting short bursts of data from battery powered devices used in metering, monitoring, and sensing applications. That makes it the perfect wireless protocol for wearable medical devices. Bluetooth Smart uses a different physical and link layer than Bluetooth Classic, but as part of the Bluetooth standard, all smartphones compatible with Bluetooth 4.0 and up are also compatible with Bluetooth Smart. Bluetooth Smart also allows medical wearables to take advantage of the cellular connectivity, GPS location awareness, and powerful processing capabilities of a smartphone to supplement the device's own capabilities. A wearable health monitor can, for instance, share sensor data with a smartphone over Bluetooth Smart. The user can then open up the device's healthcare app and view his vital signs. The user's raw health data could also be cross checked against an online database to alert them of signs they are at risk of preventable diseases. That same data could be easily shared with caregivers or loved ones. As a wireless protocol, Bluetooth Smart has been designed to be optimized for the short, bursty messages characteristic of IoT and wearable devices. Connections can be opened and closed extremely quickly, and message transmission times are short. While Bluetooth Classic connections take hundreds of milliseconds or more, Bluetooth Smart devices can establish a

Contact geometry, orientation, and placement in the insulator can improve signal integrity performance and life cycle

Smarter Healthcare with Bluetooth Low Energy The most important wireless protocol for medical wearables to have today is indisputably Bluetooth Smart, also known as Bluetooth Low Energy. Despite its name, Bluetooth Smart is quite different from regular Bluetooth. Whereas Bluetooth classic was designed to stream data to and from peripherals such as headphones, microphones

access to healthcare services to poor, underserved communities, the disabled, and the mobility challenged. Beyond improving the lives of those with diagnosed diseases, wearables can be used for preventative medicine. The next generation of fitness and health trackers may not just monitor your physical activity, but signs of impending illness to help you fend off serious health issues before they occur.

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