Mobile Health Care: Towards a Commercialization of Research Results

During the last fours years a consortium of universities, hospitals and commercial companies has been working together for the development of innovative systems and services for mobile health care. Two major projects were financed by the European Union allowed us to develop a complete mobile healthcare system and validate it with extensive medical trials. MobiHealth1 and HealthService241 have developed a generic Body Area Network (BAN) for healthcare and an m-health service platform. Biosignals measured by sensors connected to the BAN are transmitted to a remote healthcare location over public wireless networks (GPRS/UMTS), where doctors can monitor, diagnose and provide advice to patients in real time. The developed system is in the last phases of the pre-commercial validation and a commercial product is expected to be available in late 2006.