FCC Finalizes Rules for Medical Body Area Networks

The Federal Communications Commission has finalized rules for the operation of Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs), which are designed to provide clinicians with more extensive real-time data permitting faster patient intervention.

The FCC claims it can minimize that risk by adopting rules that permit an MBAN device to operate only over relatively short distances and as part of a low power networked system, and by providing frequencies where an MBAN can co-exist with existing spectrum users and engage in “robust frequency re-use.”