FCC Adopts Rules and Issues Further Rulemaking to Enable Medical Body Area Networks

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a First Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking enabling Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs). An MBAN is a low-power wideband network, consisting of body sensors and a control transmitter, that is used to wirelessly measure and record various patient data, primarily in healthcare facilities. The use of MBAN technology will reduce the need to physically connect sensors to monitoring equipment by cables and wires, thus improving patient safety, care, and comfort. Comments on the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking are due 45 days after publication in the Federal Register, and Reply Comments 65 days after publication.