Wi2Wi has announced that a global pharmaceutical company with a large medical diagnostic division has ordered 10,000 units of the company's single-antenna Bluetooth-Wi-Fi/Bluetooth product.
While Wi2Wi is keeping mum about the details of the transaction, the company says that it anticipates sales of 50,000 units of the antenna-enabled product, which means a good chance that the pharmaceutical company will place future orders with Wi2Wi.
"The connected medical device market is a multi-billion dollar opportunity, and is growing at a fast pace," said Wi2Wi CEO Dr. Reza Ahy. "In order to control costs, health care providers are looking to enhance their ability to gather data in real time from patients and medical equipment, for control and optimization of their resources."
Wi2Wi serves a number of Fortune 500 customers, delivering miniaturized embedded wireless connectivity solutions for the global medical devices market.
Bill Saltzstein, president of connectBlue, Inc., points out that designing custom wireless radio frequency solutions for medical devices requires a high R&D investment and constant support for the technology.
"An increasing number of these needs can be filled using commercially available industry standard technologies," Saltzstein wrote in an article for MedicalElectronicsDesign.com.
"The needs for electronic health records (EHR) and increased operating efficiency demand increased device connectivity, the expanded roles and scenarios demand mobility and new types of connections."
By combining Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the Wi2Wi device enables medical providers to use the top two connectivity technologies that are most commonly used in medical devices. Wi-Fi enables high-speed connectivity as well as the encryption and authentication methods that are essential for medical usage.
Bluetooth enables devices to communicate with each other within a distance of 8 meters (26.25 feet). Its data rates are lower than WLAN, but its power usage is also much lower.
Modular solutions like the Wi2Wi single-antenna Wi-Fi/Bluetooth device allow companies to get new medical devices to market without creating their own proprietary antennas. In this way, companies can focus more on the medical benefits of their devices than on developing connectivity.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
