FCC Makes Changes to Rules for Medical Area Body Networks
The FCC released an order Thursday (http://bit.ly/1piyXhm) making some technical changes to its rules for new Medical Body Area Network (MBANs), tweaking rules approved by the commission in May 2012 (CD May 25/12 p1). MBANs let doctors monitor and log data from patients with chronic diseases, FCC officials said at the time.
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Many of the changes were sought by the Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council (AFTRCC), GE Healthcare and Philips Healthcare, which filed a joint petition seeking reconsideration of parts of the order. The three are key players in the band. GE and Phillips want to build a medical sensor business and the service will make use on a secondary basis of the 2360-2400 MHz band, dedicated to aeronautical mobile telemetry (AMT). The band is used by the Department of Defense, NASA and by commercial aircraft manufacturers to collect real-time data as aircraft are put through flight tests.
Among the changes, the FCC agreed to further clarify that the use of MBANs operating in the 2360-2390 MHz part of the band should be restricted to “only hospitals and similar facilities that provide medical treatment for patient stays of 24 or more hours.” The FCC agreed with arguments by the joint parties that smaller facilities can meet their needs by using just 2390-2400 MHz spectrum.
GE, Philips and AFTRCC had also asked that the FCC allow pairing of a programmer/control transmitter with a single body-worn device. The agency agreed. “It is reasonable to assume that the type and number of body-worn devices in use on a particular patient will fluctuate, based on the changing dynamics of patient treatment and individual patients’ needs,” the FCC said. “The number of body-worn devices may increase or decrease as a particular situation warrants and, at times, best treatment practices could require the use of only a single body-worn device.”
The three had also asked the FCC to provide more flexibility on how the spectrum is used. The FCC said it would, among other changes, let two body-worn devices in the same MBAN communicate with each other and not just with a central controller. “We can permit such communications without undermining our objective of preventing harmful interference to AMT operations,” the FCC said. The agency also said it will allow control transmitters of different MBAN systems to communicate with each other, but only for the purposes of avoiding interference. The two systems can’t exchange medical data using the band, the FCC said.
But the FCC turned down a request from the three that it eliminate all restrictions on MBAN systems that operate in the 2390-2400 MHz band. The three envision “networks that consist of multiple programmer/control transmitters, networks that do not include any programmer/control transmitters, and networks where different groups of programmer/control transmitters and body-worn devices communicate between and among each other,” the FCC said. The FCC said while it will allow, for the 2390-2400 MHz band, “the same degree of flexibility in communications among MBAN components as we are now providing for MBAN devices operating in the 2360-2390 MHz band, we are not persuaded that authorizing additional flexibility in MBAN system design for the 2390-2400 MHz band would serve the public interest."
The FCC also addressed a reconsideration petition by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering of the American Hospital Association. ASHE asked that the FCC impose a requirement that users of the 2390-2400 MHz band register with an MBAN coordinator. That requirement already exists for the 2360-2390 MHz band. The FCC agreed to a limited registration requirement.
But in response to a request by GE, Philips and AFTRCC, the FCC dropped a requirement that all devices, “including disposable sensors,” must be registered with a coordinator. Under the revised requirements, the FCC is requiring the registration of just programmer/control transmitters, “and, in the case of replacement MBAN devices, only those programmer/control transmitters that are technically different than those the MBAN user previously registered.”
The FCC also made some policy calls following up on a Further NPRM on the future use of the band. The agency said it will select a single MBAN coordinator for a 10-year term. “Selecting a single MBAN coordinator is appropriate given the characteristics of the MBAN service,” the agency said: Healthcare “represents a small part of the radiofrequency user ecosystem and the number of MBAN registrants is likely to be proportionally small.” The agency also laid out the characteristics it will look for in a coordinator, including experience with medical wireless systems in healthcare facilities and with AMT operations. The FCC also said the coordinator “should be able to rely on a contract with a third party for technical expertise, and we will consider such arrangements as part of a candidate’s demonstration that it satisfies the core qualifying criteria."
The MBAN coordinator will be allowed to set fees for its services, the FCC said. Letting the commission set fees “is not practical for a number of reasons,” the agency said. “The Commission’s experience with other registration regimes ... is that the fees have been reasonable and we expect a similar outcome for MBAN coordination.” The order gives the Wireless Bureau authority to select the coordinator.