Bluetooth low energy has many applications, but mobile health, mhealth or personal health could be a key use case for this new technology.
A recent ABI research report that Bluetooth low energy will be deployed in 467 million health devices by 2016 demonstrating that the technology will play a very significant role in the healthcare market. While the report notes that delays in the standard have had a short term impact it looks like Bluetooth low energy is set to dominate.
Bluetooth and now Bluetooth low energy have significant support across the health industry. The Continua Health Alliance a not for profit alliance of over 230 companies focused on delivering end to end connected health solutions selected Bluetooth as the wireless transport for its version one design guidelines, and Bluetooth low energy in 2009. We can expect further news in coming months, but there are already a range of Bluetooth enabled medical devices in the market today.
A few months ago I gave a presentation on why Bluetooth low energy could be significant to the health and fitness market. The primary benefit will be the connection to apps that enable a user to experience a range of services with a single device.
The mobile as a health hub, and how Bluetooth low energy enables the market
CSR has supported developers of Bluetooth medical devices with our health SDK and Synergy host software stack that support the Continua standards. We’ll continue to support this market with the lower power consumption and simplicity of Bluetooth low energy.
