The successful combination of medical and information technologies will erase boundaries of time and geography to help provide health information, medical care, patient monitoring and lifesaving methods to virtually every part of the globe. The next era of Telemedicine will incorporate wireless technology and allow caregivers to monitor their patients while encouraging as active a lifestyle as possible. Studies have shown that encouraging normal, active routines and patient-control rather than just disease-control promotes a healthier lifestyle and reduces healthcare costs.

A variety of portable healthcare devices like glucometers for diabetes and blood pressure and heart-rate monitors for cardiovascular disease are empowering patients with the ability to collect and monitor their personal medical data. And medical software companies are now developing programs that can transfer the patient’s information to their cell phone for storage and transmission to the healthcare provider for review and action.

With more than 2 billion cell phones in use worldwide, the estimated market for wireless remote monitoring systems to help care for the sick is projected to increase to a $345 billion market by 2010. The ability to connect more patients to healthcare providers and nursing call centers will help improve the patient’s quality of life and decrease healthcare costs. The proliferation of personal medical devices connecting patient and doctor will redefine the way we conduct regular check-ups, help detect diseases early, dramatically decrease complications, and simplify care.

Today, heart disease is the number one health problem in the world. And the electrocardiogram or ECG is the key diagnostic and monitoring tool for the heart. It typically requires a trained professional to place a multitude of electrodes on the patient and a trained professional to interpret the ECG readings. Consequently, these tests are conducted only in professional medical environments with the required personnel and equipment.

One of our customers, Monebo Technologies, felt that embedded processing could offer a better solution. Working closely with Freescale, Monebo has developed the industry’s first ECG on-a-chip. Monebo selected Freescale’s ColdFire microcontroller to deliver the processing performance and low-power consumption required for their Kinetic ECG Algorithms and software operating system. And Freescale delivered the technical support that was critical to get the application up and running quickly and efficiently. The result is the Monebo CardioBelt, a simple, yet sophisticated cardiac monitoring system. It is easy to use, and one button operation sends the data wirelessly to a communication device, where it is then forwarded to the health care professional.

Monebo and Freescale have announced a partnership to deliver ECG-on-a-Chip platforms for OEMs to integrate into a variety of other implementations. The partnership will allow anyone developing a cardiac device to choose functionality provided by one of the Kinetic ECG Algorithms, and match it with one of the embedded processing products from Freescale’s extensive portfolio.

We envision applications in the medical market like hospital bedside monitors as well as telemedicine and portable ambulatory monitors. We also see possibilities on the consumer side with products for fitness and personal health.