Tag Archives: IoT Medical Device Security

Top 3 Medical Device Design and Development News and Blogs of the Week: March 5, 2017

Orange County medical device design & development company DeviceLab shares top news and blogs the week ending 3/5/2017.

DeviceLab is keenly interested in diverse aspects that relate to medical device design and development—in particular, mHealth and healthcare IoT.

When we find information particularly exceptional or interesting, we often share it on our @devicelab Twitter feed (which we encourage you to follow). This is a weekly post that shares the best medical device design and development information that we found from the previous week.

1. Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Internet of Things Technologies for 2017 and 2018

Each of the 10 IoT technologies merit their inclusion on the list, however, there were some recognizable patterns to what made the list. Arguably, those 10 IoT technologies could be put into four categories (with plenty of cross-category fluidity for several of them), which is interesting it illustrates how IoT is a system of discrete technologies.

Hardware
- IoT Processors
Software
- IoT Operating Systems
Networks
- IoT Security
- Low-Power, Short-Range IoT Networks
- Low-Power, Wide-Area Networks
Platforms
- IoT Analytics
- IoT Device (Thing Management)
- Event Stream Processing
- IoT Platforms
- IoT Standards and Ecosystems

If you further consider the list/categories in terms of medical IoT and mHealth devices, it’s not difficult to appreciate how their design and development will rely upon companies that have proven experience in each—especially with platforms like our Apollo™ wireless medical device platform. Draw your own conclusions about how well we feel we meet these criteria!

2. IoT Sensors Critical to Successful Health IT Infrastructure

This is noteworthy because if the previous “Top 10 Internet of Things Technologies” article had been written with a more narrow focus on medical and healthcare IoT, it would have likely included IoT sensors on the list, and for good reason! After all, as this article points out, the healthcare IoT market is projected to growth 26 percent by 2022, much of which will be driven by technologies that use IoT sensors.

3. Which Low Power IoT Network protocol will prevail? Bluetooth, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, or SigFox

Similarly, this is noteworthy because the “Top 10 Internet of Things Technologies” did address low-power IoT networking—twice! What also makes this is interesting is the “comments” section creates almost as many answers and it does questions.

DeviceLab’s ideal balance of proven experience and cutting-edge ideas for medical device development includes mHealth/wireless medical device design services and medical software development. Contact us to learn how we can advance your medical IoT device from concept to commercialization!

Top 5 Medical Device Design and Development News and Blogs of the Week: 1/29/2017

Orange County medical device design & development company DeviceLab shares top news and blogs the week ending 1/29/2017.

If you follow this blog, you already know that we are keenly interested in diverse aspects that relate to medical device design and development—in particular, mHealth and healthcare IoT.

A key for us—or anybody for that matter—to be considered a “thought leader” in their industry is to stay abreast of current events, innovations and discussions. One way we do is to follow countless Websites that publish news, blogs, white papers, case studies and other relevant information.

When we find information particularly exceptional or interesting, we often share it on our @devicelab Twitter feed (which we encourage you to follow). This is the first installment of a weekly post that will share the best medical device design and development information that we found from the previous week.

1. How IoT Can Transform the Business of Healthcare

A compelling “look at how sensors, devices and analytics are reshaping enterprise at the operational level.”

2. The Rise of the Mobile Health Industry

A quick but well-thought out read that attributes “cell phones [that] help patients connect with their doctors Smartphones, “wearables [that] can track a patient’s physical condition and “the benefits of telemetry.”

3. ONC Challenge Aims to Put mHealth App Security in the Patient’s Hands

An open call for “mHealth innovators to use the Model Privacy Notice (MPN) template to lay out an mHealth product’s privacy and security policy, then create a tool that generates a use-friendly snapshot of that document.

4. Top Ten Medical Device Trends of 2017

We were not surprised to see “Cybersecurity” (due to “medical devices becoming more complicated and featuring components that use the cloud or online reporting”) and “Wearables” (which are “expected to record an average revenue growth double the overall device market, which was worth just over USD 13.2 billion for 2016”) make the list.

5. FBI issues IoT Security Warning for Medical Devices, Wearables

A swift explanation of “FBI recommendations” for “healthcare IoT security risks.”

Orange County medical device design and development company DeviceLab will exhibit its wireless medical device and mHealth & healthcare IoT solutions at MDM 2017.

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., Jan. 30—DeviceLab Inc., an Orange County medical device design and manufacturing company, today announced it will be an exhibitor at the 32nd Annual MD&M West Conference in Anaheim, California on February 7–9, 2017.

Described by organizers as the world’s largest collection of medical device manufacturers and suppliers, DeviceLab will be using the event as a prime opportunity to demonstrate its latest medical device design and development innovations, which most recently have focused on wireless medical devices, mHealth and healthcare IoT (Internet of Things).

Updated ‘Hospital Bed of the Future’ Features New Wireless and IoT Healthcare Solutions

The central focus of DeviceLab’s MDM 2017 exhibition booth will be its updated “hospital bed of the future” display first unveiled in 2016.

Created to demonstrate DeviceLab’s Apollo™ wireless medical device electronic systems platform, the original display featured a life-size male-form mannequin (nicknamed “Apollo”) with wireless medical sensors on an electronic examination table. The table’s touchscreen displays and monitors can simulate how multiple complementary technologies—including IoT, wearable medical sensors, RFID, wireless charging, digital signal processing and IO devices—can be seamlessly integrated.

This year, “Apollo” is joined by a female-form counterpart, “Athena,” that stands upright by the table. As with the “Apollo” mannequin, Athena is also fitted with wearable medical devices that further demonstrate DeviceLab’s acumen with developing mobile medical device technologies that reduce development costs and time, including:

Bluetooth/Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) other mobile wireless technologies
Cloud data storage and analytics
iOS and Android smart phones, tablets and PCs
Multiple electronics display technologies (LED, OLED)
Server/client software for the Internet of Things (IoT)
State of the arts components from Renesas, Microchip, Broadcom etc.
Ultra low-power and self-powered sensor systems
Wi-Fi connected appliances

“We are excited about introducing Athena to guests at our MDM 2017 booth,” said Vu. “Along with providing even more visual appeal to our Apollo platform display, she was effective in helping us engage in conversations about the incredible possibilities for wireless medical devices and healthcare IoT at the recent MDIF 2016 conference.”

Embracing the Future of Medical Device Software Development in the Age of Healthcare IoT

Medical device market analysts are predicting the global IoT in healthcare market will grow from $32 billion in 2015 to $163 billion by 2020. Vu said he has witnessed a tremendous uptick in new business from customers that want to develop wireless medical devices and healthcare IoT devices in the past few years.

Along with promoting the company’s capabilities in all modes of medical device design and development, Vu said the Apollo platform display supplements his company’s recent efforts to position itself as a seasoned company with an eye on the future—which he believes will be led by companies that have superior medical device software development capabilities.

“Much of the hardware and technology to make mHealth and healthcare IoT possible already exists—for instance, wireless sensors, touchscreens, Bluetooth and WiFi,” said Vu. “However, the challenge will be to develop applications and platforms that will enable healthcare IoT devices to fulfill their potential, which involves a host of discrete challenges like connectivity, security and UI/UX while requiring as little power as possible from the wireless medical device.”

For those reasons, Vu said the Apollo display perfectly captures the essence of his company’s history and future.

“For nearly two decades, we’ve successfully produced hundreds of projects that have relied upon and refined our expertise in electronic medical device development,” said Vu. “Creating the Apollo display involved all our teams—prototyping, mechanical, software, wireless, UI/UX and production—which relied up our proven processes and best practices in medical device design and development while also pushing the limits with our innovation and creativity.”

DeviceLab will be at booth 813 on February 7–8 from 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and on February 9 from 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

About DeviceLab

DeviceLab is an ISO-13485 certified medical device design and development company in Orange County, California.

Since 1998, DeviceLab has been a reliable partner for medical device inventors and innovators to get new medical products to market as quickly and efficiently as possible but without sacrificing their potential for healthy and lengthy product life cycles.

Along with traditional electronic medical device design and development, DeviceLab also offers medical device software development and wireless medical device design services for the newest breeds of healthcare IoT, mHealth, and medical wearables.

A Call for ‘Medical Internet of Things’ Data Standardization?

Medical IoT’s Rapid Growth is Accelerating Challenges Such as Data Standardization

“Ushering in the Internet of Medical Devices” is a recent DZone blog that concisely explained “how connected devices are changing the world of healthcare,” which should not be of any particular surprise to anybody in the medical device design and development space. After all, as we discussed the other week in our blog, Who Wants IoT Medical Devices? Apparently Everybody, the IoT medical device landscape includes a diverse range of backgrounds, demographics and geographies.

With such widespread market potential, it should also come as no surprise that analysts are predicting big things financially for medical IoT. In its 2015 report Healthcare Market Worth $163.24 Billion by 2020, MarketsandMarkets (MNM) said the global IOT healthcare market—which already is an $32.4 billion market—will grow at a CAGR of 38.1% during the forecast period. Not only are the numbers big during this “growing phase,” but so are the players, which MNM said includes Medtronic, Inc., Philips, IBM Corporation, Cisco Systems, and GE Healthcare.

GE Healthcare was also mentioned in the DZone blog for its recent partnering with a startup that provides a variety of cloud-based imaging solutions—which be should exciting news for many in the medical device design and development space, as it supports the MNM report’s indication that big-time companies like GE are indeed bolstering innovation and growth in this space.

But perhaps more importantly—at least for now, and least for us involved in medical IoT device development—is what the DZone blog said about standardization. Most simply, it suggested that the GE project will be challenged by inconsistent “common data standards that apply equally in the U.S., E.U. and other markets around the world that have very different approaches to patient data.” Further, it said that “healthcare represents a particularly unique challenge in this instance, as so much legacy data exists in so many different formats” and that “perhaps standardization may be a little way off.”

The VCR vs. Betamax battle comes immediately to mind, as does the difference between NTSC and PAL video formats for North America and Europe, respectively. As with the data that the GE product is intended to share (medical imaging), the content that was either pre-recorded to video tape or is now DVD and Blu-Ray but formatted for NTSC or PAL is still the same…the only difference is how it can be seamlessly delivered.

However, one tremendous flaw in that analogy is unlike TV, healthcare truly is a matter of life or death. Granted, the technology to capture, share and store medical images and other electronic health records already exists. However, if medical IoT can improve access to that data—and improve quality of care and reduce costs, which is one of medical IoTs most significant promises—then perhaps now is as good a time as any to start a more serious discussion about standardization.

DeviceLab has the experience and capabilities to bring your wireless medical device from concept to commercialization. Contact us to learn more.

Biting Into IoT Medical Device Cybersecurity

An Examination of Wireless Medical Device Cybersecurity Issues Following the October 2016 Internet Outage

If you weren’t affected by what some are calling “the Internet apocalypse”, then you almost certainly heard about the massive distribution denial of services (DDoS) attack earlier this month that has made the topic of cybersecurity one that is more than just a threat to be discussed by U.S. Presidential candidates.

Likewise, if you’ve been following our blog, you’ve also likely heard us talking about cybersecurity as it relates to wireless medical devices—most recently in Wireless Medical Device Cybersecurity: FDA Draft Guidelines.

If there is one “benefit,” for lack of a better word, for the recent DDoS attack is that it is thrusting IoT medical device cybersecurity into the mainstream discourse. Unfortunately, it might also be unfairly lumping all IoT manufacturers together—which might not be entirely fair to IoT medical device companies.

For instance, NBC News recently published an online article, Internet of Things: Have We Bitten Off More Than We Can Chew? in which it addressed some very interesting points about IoT—both in general and specifically in regards to wireless medical devices.

IoT: Getting Too Big Too Fast?

The article said there are approximately 6.4 billion IoT devices currently in use, with estimates for the figure to reach 20.8 billion by 2020. This should come as no surprise to anybody that is engaged in wireless medical devices.

The article next explained that the DDoS attack was in part due to IoT device vulnerabilities that enabled “harmless Web-connected home devices” to function as “cyber soldiers in a ‘botnet’—a network of ‘bots.’” Further, it explained how IoT security has “by far the most spectacular vulnerabilities.” For instance, the relative ease in hacking an electronic wheelchair has been demonstrated by hackers that work with manufacturer security teams to identify security flaws.

With IoT device being so capable—and vulnerable—for maligned activities, the need for improved security is evident. However, the article indicated that it not a priority for manufacturers because “it’s an economic disincentive” to invest additional time and money into an IoT device because they want to “rush it out to market to sure they land the first punch.”

Are IoT Medical Device Manufacturers More Proactive About Cybersecurity?

Perhaps for consumer IoT, the “rush it to market” sentiment is true, however, it’s perhaps not as true—and per-haps a bit insulting—to IoT medical device design and development companies. And this precisely one of the reasons why we discuss matters such as what we covered in Wireless Medical Device Cybersecurity: FDA Draft Guidelines.

As we wrote in that blog, “Wireless medical device data takes the level of personal information to an entirely new level.” In short, IoT medical device designers, developers and manufacturers are keenly aware of the risks involved with IoT cybersecurity—risks that don’t just result in “an inconvenience for everyone” (as the NBC article said), but instead, the health and privacy of IoT medical device users.

There’s no doubt that cybersecurity—no matter the user or market—is an important issue and one that will never have a perfect solution. But hopefully all IoT manufacturers can learn not just from flaws that are sometimes brought to light in unpleasant ways—such as with the DDoS attack—but all can embrace the challenges (and risks) that we can definitely say that IoT medical device manufacturers have embraced.