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New Report for 2014:
BiowireleSS: Market Opportunities in Wireless Healthcare

Thintri Inc. announces the release of BiowireleSS: Market Opportunities in Wireless Healthcare, 2014, a new market study covering opportunities emerging in the use of wireless technologies in healthcare delivery. This comprehensive examination of the subject discusses the various technologies and their impact on the healthcare landscape, with market forecasts to 2020.

Wireless Medical Applications

• Chronic disease management
  
• Post-surgical recovery
  
• Vital sign monitoring
  
• Pro-active monitoring
  
• Eldercare
  
• Remote diagnosis
  
• Emergency communications
  
• Wellness and Fitness
  
• Telemedicine
  
• Facilities monitoring
  
• Asset and staff locating
  
• Positioning
  
• Asset management
  
• Tracking pharmaceuticals
  
• Tracking meds compliance
  
• Imaging and Video
  
• Research and clinical trials
  
• In-home assistance

Wireless Technologies

• WPANs/WBANs/MBANs
• WLANs, Wi-Fi
  
• WiMAX
  
• ZigBee
  
• Bluetooth
  
• ANT
  
• Ultra-wideband (UWB)
  
• E-textiles
  
• Radar
  
• Web conferencing
  
• Capsule endoscopy
  
• Implantable and ingestible sensors
  
• Epidermal electronics
  
• Smart bandages
  
• Smartphone apps
  
• RFID, RTLS, IPS

Market Demand
2013–2020 forecasts

• E-Textiles and
  
• Wearable Sensors
  
• Wireless Imaging and Video
  
• Smart pills & capsule endoscopes
  
• mHealth and remote monitoring
  
• Smartphone apps
  
• RFID
  
• RTLS
  
• Market volumes and unit sales
  
• Application segments
  
• Regional markets

Background on BiowireleSS

Biomedical Wireless Technology, Networks and Sensing Systems, or BiowireleSS, is rapidly becoming an integral component of healthcare delivery. A wide range of wireless technologies is being brought to bear on a long list of healthcare and pharmaceutical applications with the promise of utterly transforming healthcare as we know it today.

BiowireleSS will bring unprecedented efficiencies and productivity to healthcare delivery while lowering costs and improving patient outcomes. More importantly, many patients and their healthcare providers will experience far more freedom and flexibility. Where once a patient would have been confined to a hospital bed for extensive tests, or to be monitored post-surgery or for chronic conditions, in many cases patients will soon be monitored at home, free to go about their normal activities, while a wireless device will transmit data to healthcare providers, who will be alerted if vital signs vary from normal ranges. Hospitals will use wireless technology to instantly track equipment and staff, and automate facilities management tasks such as keeping medication at the proper temperature and storing records in the cloud, with far greater efficiency and reliability than was previously possible.

Wireless technologies applicable to healthcare will include smart garments and e-textiles; wearable sensors that can be worn on the wrist, in armbands, etc.; other sensors that are attached directly to the skin, and even epidermal electronics, small, temporary tattoo-like patches that will contain both sensors that can monitor body functions as well as wireless transmission capability and power generation/harvesting. RFID/RTLS systems will allow tracking of both hospital staff and equipment for instant locating, as well as tracking of pharmaceuticals to prevent counterfeiting. Wireless imaging and video will facilitate remote diagnosis for those lacking access to specialists. Smartphone apps will bring healthcare information directly to consumers. Many other scenarios are emerging as well.

The development of these wireless technologies, many now near market entry or already commercialized, comes as a “perfect storm” takes place, largely due to recent Federal legislation that can only be implemented in any practical sense by use of such technologies. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the ACA or “Obamacare,” will implement extraordinary measures to increase the efficiency and reliability of the US healthcare system. For example, Meaningful Use will mandate the complete move to electronic record-keeping and fundamentally changing the way physicians interact with patients and clearing the way for remote monitoring of patients.

Other ACA provisions, while not explicitly concerned with technology, will force healthcare providers to find new ways to increase efficiency and effectiveness, and thus maximize health and wellness, as part of a broad move from fee-for-service to fee-for-outcome. Hospitals, for example, will pay a penalty if a patient is readmitted within a certain period of time after discharge for the same condition. Hospitals will see full beds as expenses, rather than sources of profit. Many of the requirements of the ACA are in line with the capabilities of emerging wireless technologies and will be fundamental to their realization.

However, the road to implementation of BiowireleSS will not be smooth. Many technologies that could open up new wireless healthcare markets are still too costly. Customer education remains a significant obstacle as well.

Understand the Markets

Realizing the wide-ranging market potential in wireless healthcare delivery will depend on the development of appropriate business models, some of which are already deployed or in development. Those that are successful, and the industry consolidation that will invariably follow, will define the wireless healthcare landscape for the next couple of decades.

The 15% of the US population that is considered fragile or episodic and which forms a large portion of healthcare demand, as well as many suffering from temporary conditions, will have to be monitored closely in order to avoid hospital stays. The best way to address the needs of these populations will be the widespread use of new wireless technologies. At the same time, demand will also come from the wellness and fitness segments, which will find a bewildering array of technological options available to monitor personal training and wellness regimes. This complex mix of technologies, legislation, markets and shifting demand will present healthcare providers and wireless technology developers with extraordinary opportunities as well as threats in an uncertain, rapidly developing environment.

Thintri’s market study, BiowireleSS: Opportunities in Wireless Healthcare, will examine the leading emerging wireless healthcare-related technologies, their capabilities and limitations, along with their most promising applications and markets.

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Report Contents  

Executive Summary   1

E.1 Emerging Business Models   1
E.2 Overview: BiowireleSS   3
E.3 Wireless Coexistence & Security   4
E.4 Standards & Regulation   4
E.5 Hardware: Sensors and Networks   5
E.6 Wearable Monitors and E-Textiles   7
E.7 Wireless Technology in Imaging & Video   8
E.8 MHealth & Remote Monitoring   10
E.9 RFID and Positioning   13

Chapter 1 Emerging Business Models   16

1.1 Introduction – The Advent of Wireless Medical Technology   16
1.2 An Era of Disruption and Challenge   18
1.3 Wireless Platforms for Medicine   19
1.4 Telemedicine & Remote Presence   20
1.5 Managed Networks and Network Models   25
1.6 Autonomous Networks   27
1.7 Making Use of the Cloud   28
1.8 Facilities Monitoring   29
1.9 Effects of the ACA and New Technologies on Business Models   31

Chapter 2 Overview: BiowireleSS   35

2.1 Introduction   35
2.2 Requirements for BiowireleSS   36
2.3 The Promise of BiowireleSS   37
2.4 Radiation Safety Issues   39
2.5 The Path to Growth   39
2.6 Networked Approaches   41
      2.6.1 Introduction   41
      2.6.2 WLAN - Wi-Fi   43
      2.6.3 WiMAX   45
      2.6.4 Bluetooth   46
      2.6.5 Zigbee   48
      2.6.6 ANT   49
      2.6.7 UWB   50
            2.6.7.1 Standards   51
            2.6.7.2 Characteristics   52
            2.6.7.3 UWB Applications   52
            2.6.7.4 Radar & Imaging   53
            2.6.7.5 Capsule endoscopy   55
            2.6.7.6 Location & Positioning   56
            2.6.7.7 UWB in WBANs   57
            2.6.7.8 Power Consumption   58

Chapter 3 Wireless Coexistence & Security   59

3.1 Wireless Coexistence   59
3.2 The Influence of Standards   60
3.3 Security   61
3.4 Interoperability   63

Chapter 4 Standards & Regulation   64

4.1 Background: The Need for Regulation   64
4.2 Wireless Spectrum Allocation for Medical Use   65
4.3 Industry Standards   67
4.4 Meeting Bandwidth Demand   68
4.5 Medicare & CMS   69

Chapter 5 Hardware: Sensors and Networks   71

5.1 Body Area Networks: WBANs, WPANs, MBANs   71
      5.1.1 Background   71
      5.1.2 Protocols and Platforms   72
      5.1.3 Needs, Issues, Concerns, etc.   74
      5.1.4 MBAN Hardware & Systems   75
      5.1.5 MBAN Applications   77
      5.1.6 Market Growth   81
      5.1.7 Wireless Sensor Implementation   84
      5.1.8 Brain Research, Rehabilitation   85
      5.1.9 Sensor Hardware Issues   86
      5.1.10 Implantable and Ingestible Sensors   87
      5.1.11 Implantable Active Devices   88
5.2 Radar   90
5.3 Epidermal Electronics   90
      5.3.1 Background   91
      5.3.2 Technology   92
      5.3.3 EES Applications and Market Opportunities   95
5.4 Smart Bandages   97

Chapter 6 Applications and Markets: Wearable Monitors and E-Textiles   99

6.1 Introduction   99
6.2 Commercial History   100
6.3 Sample E-Garments   101
6.4 Markets   104

Chapter 7 Applications & Markets: Wireless Technology in Imaging & Video   109

7.1 Imaging   109
7.2 Video   112
7.3 Capsule Endoscopy   114

Chapter 8 Applications and Markets: mHealth & Remote Monitoring   117

8.1 Mobile Healthcare: Background   117
8.2 Remote Monitoring   118
      8.2.1 Regional Effects   121
      8.2.2 Eldercare   123
8.3 Emerging mHealth and Monitoring Markets   124
8.4 Smartphone Apps   132

Chapter 9 Location-Based Services: RFID, IPS, RTLS   135

9.1 Introduction   135
9.2 RFID   135
      9.2.1 RFID Technology   136
      9.2.2 RFID Applications   137
      9.2.3 Asset Tracking   139
      9.2.4 RFID Markets   139
9.3 Positioning & Locating   144
      9.3.1 Indoor Positioning Systems   144
      9.3.2 Real Time Locating Systems   145
      9.3.3 Location Systems Applications and Markets 146

List of Report Tables and Figures

Figure E-1 Markets, E-Textiles and Wearable Sensor Systems   8
Figure E-2 Global Wireless Medical Imaging Market   9
Figure E-3 Global Overall mHealth and Remote Monitoring
      Market Volume   12
Figure E-4 Global RFID Markets, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals   14
Figure E-5 Global RTLS Markets   15
Table 2.1 Dedicated, Unlicensed Medical Spectrum   41
Table 2.2 Wireless Platforms for BiowireleSS Applications   42
Figure 2.2 Bluetooth Ranges   47
Table 2.3 ZigBee Frequencies and Data Rates   49
Table 4.1 Common Standards for Medical RF Communication   65
Figure 5.1 A Typical MBAN Usage Scenario   75
Figure 5.2 Epidermal Electronics   91
Figure 6-1 Markets, E-Textiles and Wearable Sensor Systems   105
Figure 6-2 Regional Markets, E-Textiles and Wearable Sensor Systems   105
Figure 6-3 Market Segmentation, E-Textiles and Wearable Sensors   108
Figure 7-1 Global Wireless Medical Imaging Market   111
Figure 7-2 Global Wireless Medical Video Markets   114
Figure 7-3 Global Smart Pill Market   115
Figure 7-4 Global Capsule Endoscopy Market   116
Table 8.1 Required Data Rates for Physiological Signals   119
Figure 8-1 Global Overall mHealth and Remote Monitoring
      Market Volume   126
Figure 8-2 Global Market Volume, mHealth & Remote Monitoring:
      Chronic Disease Management, Short-Term Monitoring and Active Treatment   129
Figure 8-3 Global Market Volume, mHealth & Remote Monitoring:
      Diagnosis, Wellness/Fitness   129
Figure 8-4 Unit Sales, mHealth & Remote Monitoring: Chronic
      Disease Management, Short-Term Monitoring and Active Treatment   130
Figure 8-5 Unit Sales, mHealth & Remote Monitoring: Diagnosis,
      Wellness/Fitness   130
Figure 8-6 Global Market Volume, mHealth & Remote Monitoring:
      Emergency Response   131
Figure 8-7 Unit Sales, mHealth & Remote Monitoring:
      Emergency Response   131
Figure 8-8 mHealth and Remote Monitoring Market Volume:
      Communications and Smartphone Apps   133
Figure 8-9 Unit Sales, mHealth & Remote Monitoring:
      Communications and Smartphone Apps   134
Figure 8-10 Market Volume, mHealth Smartphone Apps, by Segment   134
Figure 9-1 Global RFID Markets, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals   141
Figure 9-2 Global Healthcare & Pharmaceutical RFID Markets,
      Hardware vs. Tags   141
Figure 9-3 Global Medical RFID Market: Healthcare vs.
      Pharmaceuticals   142
Figure 9-4 Regional Markets, RFID in Healthcare and
      Pharmaceuticals   142
Figure 9-5 Healthcare RFID Markets by Application   143
Figure 9-6 Pharmaceutical RFID Markets by Application   143
Figure 9-7 Global RTLS Markets   149