A Review of Implant Communication Technology in WBAN: Progress and Challenges

IEEE Rev Biomed Eng. 2019:12:88-99. doi: 10.1109/RBME.2018.2848228. Epub 2018 Jun 18.

Abstract

Over the past six decades, there has been tremendous progress made in the field of medical implant communications. A comprehensive review of the progress, current state of the art, and future direction is presented in this paper. Implanted medical devices (IMDs) are designed mainly for the purpose of diagnostic, therapeutic, and assistive applications in heathcare, active living, and sports technology. The primary target of IMDs' design revolves around reliable communications, sustainable power sources, and a high degree of miniaturization while maintaining biocompatibility to surrounding tissues adhering to the human safety limits set by appropriate guidelines. The role of the Internet of Things and intelligent data analysis in implant device networks as future research is presented in this paper. Finally, in addition to reviewing the state of the art, a novel intuitive lower bound on implant size is presented.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Electric Power Supplies
  • Humans
  • Information Technology / trends
  • Infusion Pumps, Implantable / trends*
  • Internet
  • Prostheses and Implants / trends*
  • Telemetry / trends*
  • Wireless Technology / trends*