Chip Companies Line Up to Speak at Medelec

28th October 2011

ES Admin

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Intel, Analog Devices and Renesas Electronics are among the companies lining up to give presentations at the event, which will be held at the Menzies Hotel at Bar Hill, just outside Cambridge. MEDELEC is the only technical event in the UK, which focuses specifically on the increasingly important role that electronics components, and embedded systems are playing in the design, development and manufacture of medical devices. With an impressive conference program and a vendor exhibition, this event gives electronic engineers and computer scientists an opportunity to keep up to date with the technology behind today’s medical devices.

“Security has become a hot topic in the healthcare space, particularly as medical devices are moving progressively towards connectivity to help enable the ease of monitoring, tracking and supporting enterprise productivity,” said Conor Clancy from Intel. “However, connectivity to the network can subject these devices to a wide range of viruses that has the potential to impact patient care by compromising data, leading to increased down time and increasing costs to cleanse the infected devices.”

Jan-Hein Broeders, Healthcare Business Development Manager at Analog Devices, will discuss healthcare breakthroughs that have been enabled by silicon. “Healthcare devices and medical equipment are being used more often outside hospitals and medical clinics,” said Broeders. “What this means, is that key functions such as miniaturisation, portability and low power need to be fulfilled.”

Using the example of diabetes blood glucose meters, Jason Martin of Renesas will briefly look at the technology trends used since the original 1kg Miles glucometer, where there have been improvements in measurement accuracy, user information storage and the LCD.

“Probably the most important trend will be through communications,” he said. “Whether it's direct communications from the meter to insulin pump or remote communications from the meter to the healthcare professional, there is one thing for certain – communications in healthcare will make major changes to both overall spending and peoples lifestyles.”

There will also be a presentation from Ander Altuna of the Continua Health Alliance. He will look at how personal connected healthcare leverages ubiquitous technologies such as PCs, netbooks, cell phones, smart phones and the like to help individuals and their loved ones manage their health and comply with treatment plans between traditional in-office healthcare visits.