Collaboration focuses on standards for eHealth, Internet of Things

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA) and MEMS Industry Group, the trade association for micro-electromechanical systems, have teamed up to boost adoption of standards-based technologies for eHealth and the Internet of Things (IoT).

"eHealth and IoT not only complement each other, but together they will completely change person-to-person, human-to-machine and machine-to-machine communications for the benefit of society," Konstantinos Karachalios, managing director of IEEE-SA, said in an announcement.

With telemedicine, eHealth and IoT technologies advancing rapidly, the two organizations will be working to identify standards and associated measurements required to accelerate commercialization of healthcare MEMS, the announcement reads--starting off with a workgroup focused on standards for sensor performance.

Self-tracking and wearables were among the big trends at the International Consumer Electronics Show's Digital Health Summit last month. And home monitoring represents the area of biggest impact and opportunity in the telehealth market, Frost & Sullivan reported recently.

Meanwhile, healthcare networks and Internet-connected devices are being compromised at an "alarming" frequency, The SANS Institute reported this week from an analysis of malicious traffic. It warned that the industry's cybersecurity strategies and controls have fallen behind as threats proliferate.

An array of connected devices, applications and systems can be compromised, including radiology imaging software, videoconferencing systems and edge devices such as VPNs, firewalls and routers. Compliance with HIPAA and other privacy regulations doesn't equate to data security, it noted.

Security experts have been warning for some time that hospital equipment increasingly is riddled with malware that could interfere with its operation or change readings.

To learn more:
- here's the announcement