Different healthcare applications have different requirements for power management solutions. Healthcare is a very interesting market segment in terms of power management. Despite the very long design cycles of healthcare products, high levels of innovation continue to fuel the demand for healthcare electronics. These innovative products not only replace legacy equipment, but are also used in new markets and applications that did not exist a few years ago. This article will discuss four different healthcare application areas. They are home healthcare, instrumentation, patient monitoring and imaging applications.
There is a great deal of design practice in home healthcare. Aging pressures, growing economic forces, and technological innovations on a global scale have led to many new applications in home healthcare. For patients, the benefits include: greater flexibility, better service, and fewer doctor visits. While the home healthcare market has existed for a long time, more and more advanced consumer-facing solutions have emerged recently. Examples of such solutions are exercise monitors, blood pressure monitors, and heart rate monitors. In addition, portable hematology analyzers and pulse oximeter systems have also entered the field of home healthcare today.
From a power management perspective, all of these systems require a high level of integration due to the necessary portability. For truly portable products, they will be battery powered and therefore require systems with high power efficiency. In these types of applications, lower power consumption can extend the operating time of the device without the need to recharge or replace the battery. Finally, cost is also an important parameter. While the cost of a power management solution may not be a critical parameter in some other healthcare applications, it is important in home healthcare. Cost constraints have a profound impact on today’s consumer electronics market.
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