Written By: Brad Jolly, Senior Applications Engineer – Keysight Technologies
The hospital of today bears little resemblance to its predecessor of just a few short decades ago. For one, it now has internet-enabled medical equipment and devices now a central part of diagnosing, treating and monitoring patients. These technologies have significantly improved the standard of care. But they also introduce a range of challenges for healthcare practitioners, administrators, and patients. The good news is these issues can be mitigated—or, in some cases, eliminated—in the engineering and design phase.
With that in mind, the following are five important considerations for manufacturers to support connected healthcare’s continued acceleration:
1. Address Security Vulnerabilities
According to one study, 53% of connected medical devices contain critical vulnerabilities that threaten both patient privacy and patient safety. Healthcare institutions are mostly aware of their presence in hackers’ crosshairs; unfortunately often overlook upstream supply chain weaknesses when it comes to bolstering device security.
These flaws are typically hidden deep inside the protocol stacks on embedded systems from third-party manufacturers. As such, they are often undetected in security scans and subsequently make their way into devices in production. These vulnerabilities then enable hackers to bypass onboard security controls and crash, deadlock or freeze a device.
To combat these threats, device manufacturers must implement a comprehensive testing mechanism called protocol fuzzing. The process injects various errors into a communication exchange to confuse the entity at the other end of a connection. This then enables teams to identify protocol-level vulnerabilities. It is also a best practice to integrate protocol stress testing into the overall cybersecurity validation strategy. Doing so prevents device hacks on an ongoing basis. Additionally, it ensures that patient privacy and safety are protected as connected health innovations are introduced.
2. Ensure a Positive User Experience
Addressing user experience concerns is another critical step in supporting connected health’s ongoing innovation. This can be challenging from a testing perspective, as there are many different users for a given device or application. Hiring numerous testers to manually test and validate performance is a costly, time-intensive endeavor. Moreover, it fails to account for the different user demographics that will be interacting with the technology daily.
Often, these users are not trained medical personnel but the patients themselves. Meaning, the user profiles span a range of ages, backgrounds and degrees of technical savvy. Also, users often expect healthcare applications to run correctly on a variety of physical platforms and operating systems. Just think of the many varieties in desktop and laptop computers, tablets, phones and even smartwatches. Think as well of the different operating systems that support them.
“The hospital of today bears little resemblance to its predecessor of just a few short decades ago.”
For these reasons, a better approach is to use Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven test automation to evaluate the user experience. Software-based solutions can find more paths through complex applications and test all possible user journeys. In addition, they can deliver results significantly faster than traditional testing. Crucially, they can automatically focus more attention on testing areas where defects are prevalent. In this way, manufacturers can deliver an effective, safe and efficacious device to all user segments on time.
3. Select the Right Battery
While their specifications may say otherwise, not all batteries are the same. Hence, picking the wrong one can curtail a device’s lifespan and overall capabilities. To make sure you are using the right battery, use emulation software to create a profile of actual batteries. These profiles can then be imported and used in tests without any involvement from the physical counterparts. Firstly, teams can measure and record battery conditions as the charge is depleted. Secondly, they can attain a better understanding of battery behavior. Thirdly, they can use these insights to determine which battery is best for the device at hand.
4. Ensure Signal Integrity Even with Increased Data Processing
Increased data processing in connected devices can present signal integrity challenges. These are exacerbated as new health innovations are rolled out. Crosstalk from adjacent traces, boards running at lower voltage levels and more on-board processing are just a few factors that interfere with the quality of electrical signals. Remember: The efficacy of smart health devices is heavily reliant on signal integrity.
Ergo, it is important that manufacturers overcome any issues. A good first step is using software emulation tools to identify and eliminate any issues before fabricating the board, saving time and money. Another best practice is documenting learnings in the quality management system to reduce risk. Doing so also enables a faster time to market with future designs.
5. Reduce Measurement Errors to Make Better Decisions
Finally, it is critical that manufacturers address drift to ensure they are continuously making consistent, accurate and repeatable measurements. Regular and proper verification is essential for making sure instruments are accurate. It is also crucial to make sure instruments are operating within specifications. Moreover, doing so ensures these instruments have traceability backed by certification. In addition, regular calibration also enables teams to reduce work, avoid delays and ensure that connected health innovations deliver maximum value to patients.
“While their specifications may say otherwise, not all batteries are the same. Hence, picking the wrong one can curtail a device’s lifespan and overall capabilities.”
Connecting to the Needs of Tomorrow
We can only expect connected medical devices to grow more complex in the years ahead. Along with this growth is their path to the marketplace. That is why it is imperative manufacturers must recognise security, usability, battery life and other connected healthcare considerations and then address them during the design phase. Organisations that re-engineer their workflows, as needed, will be best positioned to develop safe, efficacious and intuitive technologies that have market-staying power.
Archive
- October 2024(44)
- September 2024(94)
- August 2024(100)
- July 2024(99)
- June 2024(126)
- May 2024(155)
- April 2024(123)
- March 2024(112)
- February 2024(109)
- January 2024(95)
- December 2023(56)
- November 2023(86)
- October 2023(97)
- September 2023(89)
- August 2023(101)
- July 2023(104)
- June 2023(113)
- May 2023(103)
- April 2023(93)
- March 2023(129)
- February 2023(77)
- January 2023(91)
- December 2022(90)
- November 2022(125)
- October 2022(117)
- September 2022(137)
- August 2022(119)
- July 2022(99)
- June 2022(128)
- May 2022(112)
- April 2022(108)
- March 2022(121)
- February 2022(93)
- January 2022(110)
- December 2021(92)
- November 2021(107)
- October 2021(101)
- September 2021(81)
- August 2021(74)
- July 2021(78)
- June 2021(92)
- May 2021(67)
- April 2021(79)
- March 2021(79)
- February 2021(58)
- January 2021(55)
- December 2020(56)
- November 2020(59)
- October 2020(78)
- September 2020(72)
- August 2020(64)
- July 2020(71)
- June 2020(74)
- May 2020(50)
- April 2020(71)
- March 2020(71)
- February 2020(58)
- January 2020(62)
- December 2019(57)
- November 2019(64)
- October 2019(25)
- September 2019(24)
- August 2019(14)
- July 2019(23)
- June 2019(54)
- May 2019(82)
- April 2019(76)
- March 2019(71)
- February 2019(67)
- January 2019(75)
- December 2018(44)
- November 2018(47)
- October 2018(74)
- September 2018(54)
- August 2018(61)
- July 2018(72)
- June 2018(62)
- May 2018(62)
- April 2018(73)
- March 2018(76)
- February 2018(8)
- January 2018(7)
- December 2017(6)
- November 2017(8)
- October 2017(3)
- September 2017(4)
- August 2017(4)
- July 2017(2)
- June 2017(5)
- May 2017(6)
- April 2017(11)
- March 2017(8)
- February 2017(16)
- January 2017(10)
- December 2016(12)
- November 2016(20)
- October 2016(7)
- September 2016(102)
- August 2016(168)
- July 2016(141)
- June 2016(149)
- May 2016(117)
- April 2016(59)
- March 2016(85)
- February 2016(153)
- December 2015(150)