Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
12.1 Introduction
Several advancements in different scientific and technological disciplines
(e.g., nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information and communications
technology [ICT]) appear to be promising for enabling an increasing number
of medical technologies and devices appropriate for home and mobile appli-
cations. The trend to develop such medical technologies is stimulated by the
recent developments in the dynamics of supply and demand of the health-
care sector. In this study, we will focus on one selected case, that of Body
Area Networks (BAN) in health care (see Jones et al. 2007). The concept of
BAN was first coined by Zimmerman (1999) at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and IBM under the topic of Personal Area Networks (PAN) and
has been further developed by other groups at Philips (van Dam et al. 2001)
and by the MobiHealth team at the University of Twente and Fraunhofer
(Jones et al. 2001). Although there might be a general consensus on the sig-
nificance of this concept for improving health practices in various domains,
the level of its actual impact is still undefined particularly in respect to its
long-term implications. Therefore, this chapter will address the anticipation
of aspects that will have an effect on the successful societal embedding of
BAN technologies into the health-care system. To this end, we use the phi-
losophy of constructive technology assessment and will utilize its tools to
anticipate on ethical, legal, and societal implications of the concept of BAN
in health-care settings.
Figure 12.1 is a diagram that has been drawn on the basis of a visionary
program at the Holst Centre in the Netherlands, called the Human++ pro-
gram (Gyselinckx et al. 2006). The diagram illustrates a simplified example
of such advanced BAN architecture. It represents a patient or a client with
a number of sensors attached, worn, or implanted in the body. The sensor
nodes are envisioned to be autonomous and extremely miniaturized and
capable of transmitting data wirelessly. Data from the sensors are then wire-
lessly transmitted to a processing unit before being transmitted (wirelessly)
to a central monitoring server via a network.
Body area networks in health care must be seen as part of a broader vision,
that of Ambient Intelligence, “a future environment that is aware of our
presence and responsive to our needs” (Aarts and Roovers 2003). “Ambient”
extends from the external environment to the internal environment. Related
to health care, miniaturization of chips, computer devices, and sensors prom-
ise to enable cheap, light, wearable, and even implantable autonomous sys-
tems for continuous monitoring of vital health signs. BAN form a particular,
and promising, approach (Jones et al. 2007; Penders et al. 2007; Gyselinckx et
al. 2008). The resulting opportunities for use in health care are broad, but one
important focus is the shift from monitoring patients in health-care facilities
and hospitals, to their daily environment. Of course, this requires further
technological and social innovation, already in the systems to receive and
