Medical device companies on a global basis are now in a transformative connectivity space. Where in the past medical devices were stand-alone functional solutions they are now have to be connected to the networked enterprise space.
The networked enterprise encompasses both inside and outside the walls of the hospital and is across the entire continuum of care.The justification as a part of this is the pervasive need for bringing this medical device data in a networked and connected sense to the EMR to support meaningful use.The aforementioned is driving medical device companies to enable their devices in both a wireless and networked sense. In doing so certain design criteria needs to be met to ensure that these device operate safely and effectively with the least amount of risk.
You also have to consider in addition the requirements poised by this new networked medical device meet the newly adopted guidelines poised by the FDA for the 510(k) approval process. The IXIA family of solutions provides a comprehensive way to meet all of these requirements. First it allows medical device companies to test and validate the propensity of the wireless roaming algorithms and all security supplicant passing of the wireless adapter before a complete design build. This ensures that the medical device company will select the correct manufacture of the WLAN adapter before the product is built out. Second it provides a unique load and testing environment that will help to verify and validate the performance of the wireless enabled medical device that will assist in the FDA 510(k) approval process.
Finally with tools such as WaveDeploy, there is now a comprehensive way to conduct a wireless site survey and also proactive network load testing before a deployment process. Previously, IXIA had the components as such to build out a lab experience as described. With the addition of the Golden AP or “lab in a desktop”, IXIA can provide the medical device company a complete solution that will enable the testing for all as described.
