Android Medical Devices

Android-based medical devices have recently seen a big surge in adoption. While it is still early days for Android in the medical technology space, HSC is working with vendors who are leading innovation in the industry. There are many compelling reasons for building Android-enabled medical devices, including (but not restricted to):

• Monitoring device for the elderly which can interface with other medical equipment to collect patients’ vital statistics and offering video calling functionality for hospice care consultation
• Dedicated medical tablets for nurses/doctors that integrate with other equipment, offering patient-related information, X-ray /MRI/ECG scans and more
• The ability to provide cost effective medical care to patients outside of the hospital – Android-powered devices provide a rich platform (UX and features) to deliver better services than the simple monitors in use today
• As medical technology is getting more complicated, there is a need to interface with a variety of protocols such as Bluetooth, WiFi, Zigbee, etc. and Android provides easy access to this technology

 HSC has been working with Android OS since 2008. We have an R&D team dedicated to understanding Android's internals for future devices, the medical vertical being a priority. We have built expertise in several areas directly relevant to medical device development with the OS:

• Drastically Improving boot time for Android
• Integrating 3rd party stacks relevant to medical devices (standards from IHE, IEEE/Continua)
• Adding device drivers to interface with embedded medical equipment for data transfer
• Developing a dual-OS architecture where both the OSs can co-exist in parallel – helps you protect your current core functions and allows you to bring in benefits of Android

(Looking for something else? Head on back to our Embedded Android page for more information on our technical capabilities and the industries we serve)