Intelligraphics Inc. (IGX Wireless), the industry leader in intelligent roaming solutions and development services, announced IGX MED a Wireless Advanced Roaming Device Driver Suite for medical systems, to enable them to quickly connect to hospital, clinical, and EMS IT environments.

Now wireless devices can scan for and connect to an available access point (AP) in milliseconds, allowing medical staff to efficiently monitor, diagnose, and respond to rapidly changing or potentially life-threatening patient conditions in real-time.

Mobile medical systems are being developed with Wi-Fi connectivity to allow portable devices to be easily moved from room to room. Compact mobile devices, including infusion pumps, heart and hypertension monitoring, glucose monitoring, and other wearable devices for home healthcare, require “always-on” Wi-Fi connectivity to stream data and provide alerts to medical staff.

There are many instances when mobile wireless devices lose their connection to an Access Point (AP). The first is when the device is moving through an area and needs to disconnect from the current AP and reconnect to the next nearest AP. The second case is stationary wireless devices in large, dynamic environments where there are hundreds or more wireless APs. In this situation, the wireless network architecture must continuously analyze the radio frequency (RF) environment and automatically adjust AP power and channel configurations to compensate for interference, signal coverage, load balancing, and AP failures. When this occurs, the wireless device must “roam,” which includes scanning for and locating another AP to establish connectivity. Unfortunately, this roaming time can take several seconds with Wi-Fi devices that use non-optimized software.

With Critical Patient Care, Every Second Counts

The difference between a 100 millisecond and a 3-second roam time in patient monitoring systems like an ECG could create a data gap that results in a lost waveform or a missed condition that does not trigger a medical alarm. A cardiologist, doctor, or nurse could miss an event that is happening with their patient. Often, monitoring systems are powered up and need to stay connected for months or even a year. Another scenario is the data handoff from an EMS vehicle to the emergency center. The faster the wireless device can roam to connect to the facility’s network, the faster the medical staff can monitor and diagnose the patient’s condition.

The IGX MED Wireless Advanced Roaming Driver Suite gives wireless medical devices an “always on” Wi-Fi connection so healthcare staff can have reliable access to real-time monitoring and diagnostic information, make decisions faster, and improve patient outcomes. IGX MED Advanced Roaming supports all types of 802.11 wireless APs, allowing customers to quickly integrate their devices, while maintaining compatibility with their existing IT infrastructure.

IGX MED Advanced Roaming software uses proprietary scanning algorithms and decision making logic to significantly reduce the time it takes for wireless devices to connect to an AP, boosting device availability and connection reliability. The software provides fast, seamless roaming along with optional enterprise-class security and Cisco CCX support. Built with the compatibility that today’s and tomorrow’s wireless medical devices require, Intelligraphics delivers optimized device drivers and firmware that support multiple hardware, software, and operating systems, including Linux, Android, Windows 7/10, and WEC7, giving our customers a wide range of options for the most demanding wireless medical applications.

“Helping the medical industry improve patient care using wireless technology is part of our core mission. Our relationship with key Wi-Fi chip providers enables us to deliver our customers a reliable, high-quality solution along with full support. We recognize that wireless medical devices are revolutionizing healthcare in hospitals, point-of-care facilities, and at home. By harnessing the power of Intelligraphics’ software, medical device manufacturers can get the most performance, reliability, and availability from their wireless devices,” said Scott Lawson, President of Intelligraphics.