Article

Wireless communication with implanted medical devices using the conductive properties of the body.

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Expert Review of Medical Devices (impact factor: 2.63). 07/2011; 8(4):427-33. DOI:10.1586/erd.11.16 pp.427-33
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Many medical devices that are implanted in the body use wires or wireless radiofrequency telemetry to communicate with circuitry outside the body. However, the wires are a common source of surgical complications, including breakage, infection and electrical noise. In addition, radiofrequency telemetry requires large amounts of power and results in low-efficiency transmission through biological tissue. As an alternative, the conductive properties of the body can be used to enable wireless communication with implanted devices. In this article, several methods of intrabody communication are described and compared. In addition to reducing the complications that occur with current implantable medical devices, intrabody communication can enable novel types of miniature devices for research and clinical applications.

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Keywords

breakage
 
circuitry
 
clinical applications
 
common source
 
current implantable medical devices
 
electrical noise
 
implanted devices
 
large amounts
 
low-efficiency transmission
 
medical devices
 
novel types
 
radiofrequency telemetry
 
surgical complications
 
wireless radiofrequency telemetry
 

John E Ferguson