ITU Signs Off Network Spec For Personal Medical Devices

Simon Sharwood | The Register | December 22, 2013

Cisco, IBM, Oracle, Intel, Qualcomm et al can now run your body

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has signed off a new standard for communication between personal medical devices.

It will come as no surprise to learn that Intel, Cisco, IBM, Oracle, several consumer electronics giants and the industry groups behind WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee are behind the new standard, as they are all members of the Continua Health Alliance.

The ITU's “ITU-T H.810” standard “contains” the Alliance's “Interoperability design guidelines for personal health systems”.

The guidelines are designed to allow easy interoperability between all manner of personal health devices such as “wireless blood pressure cuffs, weight scales and a wide range of activity trackers”. [...]