MABNs to Untether Hospital Patients

There are many unpleasant aspects of being in a hospital, besides the obvious fact that you're only there if you're sick or injured, so it's encouraging to learn about new ways of making patients more comfortable. The gowns probably will remain itchy and unflattering for eternity, and there's not much you can do about the IV drip, but how about getting rid of all those monitoring wires?

Silicon Valley-based GE Healthcare is reportedly working on it, as explained in an article published by Computerworld. The solution is a so-called "Medical Area Body Network" (or MABN), a wireless network running on a dedicated spectrum for use by hospitals.

As of now, GE Healthcare is still awaiting approval from the Federal Communications Commission for allocation of the licensed spectrum between 2360 MHz and 2400 MHz, which would be just enough bandwidth for low-powered and short-range medical doohickeys. And according to the article, the use of licensed bandwidth would eliminate concerns about interference from unlicensed networks, namely Wi-Fi.

The Computerworld article explains how the networks would work, using yet another acronym: "With that licensed spectrum, GE said today it hopes to create a wireless medical monitoring system that it calls Body Sensor Networks (BSN), primarily to replace the tangle of bedside cables used to capture a patient's vital signs, including temperature, electrocardiogram readings and respiration."

Ah, freedom! But increasing a patient's mobility also helps speed recovery times and reduce the chances of contracting infection (those wires harbor all kinds of nasty germs).

It could take the FCC -- moving at the speed of government -- as little as six months and as long as 18 months to green light MABNs. Until then, sit tight and try not to get tangled up on your way to the john.

Photo courtesy of markhillary, via Flickr