The Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard promises long term connectivity of digital devices minus the short battery life that traditional Bluetooth has often been responsible for in the past. Health monitoring technologies may turn out to be the biggest beneficiaries of BLE, since size and power consumption are usually critical when devices have to be worn by patients over extended periods of time.
Cambridge Consultants, a firm that helps other companies design new products, has developed an example iPhone app for interfacing a blood pressure monitor with the smartphone using BLE. The app currently talks to a dummy device that’s really just a Bluetooth radio, but the company says the feature can be integrated into pretty much any future BP monitors.
Press release: Cambridge Consultants unveils Bluetooth® low energy enabled iPhone applications for mobile health