Imagine that you are a doctor and you have a patient with a heart condition. The patient is currently at a friend’s house and is experiencing problems. His Android phone notifies you of the possible problem. You open the alert and can see your patient’s heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, and other vital statistics in real time to help you determine next steps. You decide that your patient is in danger and send an ambulance at the touch of a button and immediately call your patient. Your patient’s location is also known thanks to the GPS on your smartphone.
This scenario is fast becoming a reality with a recent development in technology: Bluetooth Health Data Profile (HDP). Bluetooth HDP is a new layer at the top of the Bluetooth protocol stack that specifies a standard set of instructions for medical devices. The HDP Bluetooth device securely connects and transmits data to a smartphone or other receiver. The data can then be transmitted to a central health management application used by doctors, nurses, home care providers, etc.
It is true that there are thousands of medical devices that are currently Bluetooth enabled. However, until now there has been no standard set of instructions for exchanging data. This means that each device must have its own proprietary application to communicate. Bluetooth HDP devices will be able to communicate with applications developed to support the new standard. A great benefit for consumers is that we can buy a heart monitor from one supplier and a blood oxygen meter from another. Both devices can now communicate with your health care provider’s chosen health management system. This is good for the consumer because it gives us choice and does not limit us to a single vendor solution. We can also choose best-in-class hardware and software, as well as buy them at competitive prices.
Why do we need a standard set of instructions? Imagine if the web didn’t use a standard set of protocols and technology to render web pages? This would mean that you would need a specific browser to view a website built on X technology and another for one built on Y technology. A web browser, like Firefox, may or may not work with all websites. Due to these standards, we can use a browser to browse the web.
Medical device manufacturers and health management software developers will be the largest consumers of this technology. As we have an increasingly aging population, healthcare providers must find better ways to deliver quality care to their clients and scale with the increasing number of cases. However, there are others who can also take advantage of this technology. For example, manufacturers of cardiovascular equipment could use Bluetooth HDP to receive data from a heart monitor worn by the user and send it to the treadmill they are running on. The speed of the treadmill can be increased or decreased based on the data received from the heart rate monitor and the type of workout. The heart rate monitor can also be used on any other treadmill in any other gym, as long as it is HDP Bluetooth enabled equipment.
The possibilities are endless for the implementation of Bluetooth HDP. Creative individuals and groups will, of course, push this technology to the limit.
Some devices that currently support Bluetooth HDP
- MediaPad HUAWEI
- uzHealth HDP weighing scale
- oximeter nonin
- Android 4.0 devices, and many others…