wilamowski-b-m-irwin-j-d-industrial-communication-systems-2011

30-2 Industrial Communication Systems
administration of medications intravenously, “smart” camera pills used in digestive tract disease diagnosis,
orthopedic implants utilized in post-surgery observation, and remote patient monitoring devices
used to collect real-time clinical data for medical analysis [2]. Besides integrating intelligence, medical
devices also embed standard-based communication interfaces, thus enabling them to participate in
clinical networks sharing information with medical subsystems and healthcare providers.
Healthcare systems encompass a broad spectrum of technologies benefiting from the support of data
communications. Web-based imaging systems facilitate data collection and “in time,” remote, expert judgment.
Telemetry and wireless systems monitor critical vital signs in intensive care units, providing real-time
information that can trigger immediate life-saving medical response. Telemedicine and teleconference
services provide global communication tools for timely advice, information exchange, monitoring, and
decision. Robotic or computer-assisted surgery allows significant advances in remote, minimally invasive,
and unmanned surgery, increasing patients’ access and surgery precision, while decreasing comorbidities.
Wireless systems have enabled the monitoring of inpatient localization in healthcare institutions, thus
improving response times in accidents (e.g., falls), security (e.g., parents remotely see their babies in neonatal
intensive care units), and comfort (voice over IP communications between inpatients and their families).
Although there is a broad range of healthcare applications employing data communications (telemonitoring,
PACS, etc.), due to length restrictions, this chapter solely focuses on communication
technologies addressing healthcare localization, monitoring, and automation applications. Also, this
chapter does not provide detailed specifications for standard technologies as they are available within
the IEEE and industry standards, and in the corresponding chapters of the book.
The remaining chapter is structured as follows: Section 30.2 introduces the main communication
requirements of medical applications by focusing on localization, clinical monitoring, and automation
(and control) applications. Section 30.3 provides an overview of localization techniques and presents
commercial examples of localization systems by outlining their architecture and operation. Section
30.4 covers clinical monitoring applications and reviews several monitoring systems employing different
communication technologies. Section 30.5 summarizes the communication approaches applied in
medical automation applications, particularly smart homes and healthcare robotics. Finally, Section
30.6 raises several topics related to the issues and challenges of developing medical communications.
30.2 requirements
Communications have a wide spectrum of applications in healthcare environments ranging from appliance
automation in smart homes to the clinical monitoring of patients in critical condition. As such,
requirements are significantly heterogeneous in what concerns the main architectural and performance
parameters of communication technologies: range, topology, autonomy, latency, jitter, and throughput.
Table 30.1 summarizes the requirements for localization, monitoring, and automation applications in
medical environments.
The operation range is classified as body area network (BAN), personal area network (PAN), or local area
network (LAN) in accordance with the typical coverage of standard communication technologies. Topology
requirements are diversified as the application domain demands the support of multiple network configurations
ranging from simple point–point links (e.g., bedside monitoring) to multihop connections (e.g., telemetry).
The maximum number of required nodes in home monitoring and healthcare robotic applications is
low. Conversely, dense localization and health monitoring scenarios (e.g., found in healthcare institutions)
require the deployment of a significant number of devices. The autonomy parameter is defined as the lifetime
of a node with regard to battery capacity and power consumption. In effect, this is one of the most important
requirements for mobile healthcare devices and has a strong impact on its usefulness. Latency and jitter
define the timeliness of communication technology, which has a considerable effect on the reliability and
accuracy of the overlying medical applications. For example, the occurrence of a high delay in communicating
an alarm condition may result in irreversible damage to a patient’s health. Moreover, significant jitter
may affect the accuracy of a medical diagnosis due to the utilization of tainted data.
© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC