Wireless Charging for IoMt 101
Advancements in technology have brought a surge of electric medical devices into homes that are dependent on improving patient wellness and ultimately preserving human lives. These use cases include small medical IoT devices that support remote homecare wellness, health, and self-monitoring. In other situations, such as in surgery rooms, small sensors could be utilized to perform critical patient monitoring during surgery.
What is IoMT?
In short, medical IoT devices are a connected infrastructure of medical devices, software applications, and health systems and services that work to improve user experience and patients’ quality of life.
How is IoMT Changing Healthcare and Saving Lives?
Connectivity between medical devices improves efficiency in clinical workflow management worldwide and leads to a general improvement in inpatient care. This includes both inside clinics & hospitals and in remote locations.
Deloitte reports a growing adoption of IoT technologies in medical settings, with examples such as sensor-based devices, wearables, and even technologies for remote patient monitoring. In addition to this, the rise of IoMT is driven by an increase in the number of connected medical devices that can generate, collect, analyze or transmit health data or images and connect to healthcare provider networks, sending data to either a cloud repository or internal servers.
Despite these obvious benefits, one of the most significant barriers holding back the full potential of medical IoT devices is battery charging and issues related to power.
For medical IoT & procedures to have the highest possible success rate, electronic medical devices need to function correctly and reliably at all times. For the medical IoT device to achieve high usability and customer satisfaction – battery life and charging must be seamless, fast, efficient, and should fit both medical-grade standards and a patients’ specific usability needs.
Key Challenges in the World of Medical IoT Devices (IoMT) related to Power and Charging
Shorter Battery life
- Effects on User Experience: decreasing the solution form factor to enable improved portability and avoid adding an extra product footprint, resulting in reduced battery size and capacity.
- Effects on Connectivity: Increasing connectivity and fast information transferring enables real-time data but results in quicker battery drainage. This calls for a quick and easy alternative solution to charging these devices that optimize the battery’s storage capabilities for long periods of time.
Sterilization
Charging ports are a challenge when keeping products sterile, with manufacturers spending significant efforts in design and mechanics to seal ports, protect them from potential contamination, and enable easy product sterilization. This inevitably causes a considerable rise in product costs.
Small IoMt Devices Can Be Too Tiny for Power Connectors
Contact pins that are commonly used when a device is too small for a connector may cause potential hazards as they leave exposed metals subject to corrosion and damage.
Cost
The high costs of receivers and sensors in medical IoT devices and the need for a smart solution with an accurate price point.
Wireless Power Technology: The Perfect Solution
Wireless power and charging technology allows users to charge their medical IoT devices without the disadvantages and inconvenience of plugging them into the wall. This method enables IoT devices to charge by simply placing the device on a charging mat or even charging it while using it, depending on the specific use case. This approach is safer, convenient, and more cost-effective for medical IoT device designers and manufacturers.
The patient/user perspective offers a viable solution to charge small homecare medical IoT devices without removing or plugging devices directly into a charger, keeping devices completely sealed and sterile, and thus preventing contamination. Users simply recharge them by placing them on a charging mat or coupling the wireless charger on their body near the device to reach the necessary charging level – creating a significant difference for medical IoT users, especially in cases where users are not tech-savvy and need a simple and convenient way to recharge their devices.
Powermat wireless charging technology for IoMT applications allows for a tiny product form factor that enables the implementation of wireless charging even in the smallest of IoT devices, supporting ongoing data transfer, with a seamless method of fast recharging when needed.
Wireless Power for IoMT Devices – Quick Summary
(1) Wireless charging enables miniaturization of the IoMT device while relieving battery life concerns.
(2) A perfect method to easily re-charge, prevent contamination, and enable easy ongoing sterilization.
(3) Full product safety, reducing exposed metals and power hazards to zero.
(4) An unparalleled, seamless charging experience by simply placing the receiver by the charger, enabling patients of all ages and medical professionals to charge a devices’ battery without dealing with cumbersome connectors quickly.