Texas Instruments has developed solutions for encoding & decoding of high resolution images and video in telemedicine. Although the company has optimal solutions, there is need to integrate a host of communication technologies both wired and wireless to transmit the data to the diagnostic centres.
The company since 2005 has provided analog and embedded processing solutions for low power remote patient monitoring, portable medical meters, blood gas analyzers, ECG, portable ultrasound, blood pressure monitors and high quality video conferencing solutions for doctor patient communication.
There has been a need for miniaturization and optimization of power consumption while reducing system cost of diagnostic and monitoring equipment like ECG, ultrasound, pulse oximeters, blood glucose and monitors. These are some of the areas that TI is addressing.
It is working towards lower power, smaller form factor solutions that will enable this. Reliable wired or wireless connectivity is another major technology that is needed for this to be a reality. The TI India R&D Centre in Bangalore is engaged in advanced semiconductor design and development of integrated circuits (ICs) and software components. The engineers at TI India work closely with their counterparts in other TI labs across the world, Praveen K Ganapathy, director, business development, Texas Instruments India told Pharmabiz.
The company has been a supplier to the medical electronics industry for around three decades. Collaborating with customers, the industry and universities, TI is building a community for investing in new ideas to advance medical electronics digital, analog technologies, wireless connectivity, digital imaging and power management.
The semiconductor industry has a critical role to play in the development of innovative medical electronic products and devices and can bring about a paradigm shift particularly in areas like telemedicine. The connectivity enabled by semiconductor technology will drive applications such as telemedicine that will facilitate access to the required level of healthcare.
Recent technological advances in sensors, low-power integrated circuits, and wireless communications have enabled the design of low-cost, miniature and intelligent physiological sensor modules. These modules are capable of measuring, processing, communicating one or more physiological parameters and can be integrated into a wireless personal area network (WPAN).
Efforts to reduce system cost of monitoring and communication devices to drive higher deployment are being addressed. The trend is to design equipment that run on low levels of power. This is where semiconductor companies are devising energy harvesting techniques. There is also migration of base technologies from consumer space to medical-telemedicine. For instance, High Definition Video technology is now being used for linking remote diagnostic centres to hospitals, enabling the doctor to offer diagnosis as if the patient is in front of him.
"Eventually we could envisage a kiosk where people could come in, be identified by biometrics and have their blood pressure, respiration levels and other basic vital parameters measured followed by remote consultation with an expert medical practitioner", said Ganapathy.