Wireless Technology Selection
Here's a story at embedded-europe.com about the adoption of various wireless technologies in medical devices -- for connectivity, of course. 
Yours truly is quoted, talking about the difficulties faced by companies outside of health care who would like to break in. Genesis for the story came from the advent of tablet computers:
A recent example of this came from two leading suppliers in the medical sector; Philips and Motion Computing. They have both recently introduced wireless medical tablets, powered by Intel's Mobile Clinical Assistant platform (MCA). This class of device uses WiFi to communicate and features a digital camera, along with both barcode and RFID readers, for scanning medicine labels and identifying patients by their wrist straps. They will also likely feature Bluetooth, to capture patients' vital signs.
It seems to me, these tablets are become Computers on Wheels devices, riding around in docking stations with separate keyboards and mouses.
This story also looked at Bluetooth and Zigbee:
So will the introduction of open Bluetooth and ZigBee profiles stimulate growth, and if so how? Gee believes that interoperability, and therefore profiles, will be essential, but other things need to be in place. For instance, to overcome the situation of proprietary equipment interfacing with equipment based on open standards, there needs to be some form of common data exchange, a kind of 'http for medical devices'.
This past summer, Continua Health Alliance selected the medical profiles of both Bluetooth and Zigbee for their member's wireless sensor networking. Something similar to Continua is still lacking in the acute care market, hindering market growth.
And a blast from the past. Remember when Bill Gates was convinced that the tablet would be come the predominate type of personal computer any day? (Circa November 7, 2002)
