Telehealth Aggregation Manager
Telehealth Aggregation Manager
Block Diagram
Design Considerations
With aging populations, increasing incidence of chronic diseases, and the need to control health care costs, connected health technologies are becoming increasingly important. The Telehealth / Telemedicine Aggregation Manager (AM) is an essential device in the connected health system enabling personal health devices to log data in a remote EHR (Electronic Health Record) for family and clinical review. The AM can take the form of a cell phone, a personal computer; or a dedicated device. The system solutions for a dedicated low power AM with no video output include the following key components:
- MCU: the LM3S9B9x processor (http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/lm3s9b92.html) is an ARM Cortex M3 based MCU with integrated Ethernet MAC/PHY and High Speed USB OTG transceiver. Low power sleep modes and fast interrupt processing are ideal features for battery powered devices. TI provides all system drivers and no assembly is required.
- Connectivity: Continua Health Alliance is dedicated to establishing a system of interoperable personal health solutions. In order to be certified as a Continua Aggregation Manager, the device must integrate at least one Personal Area Network (PAN) interface such as USB and Bluetooth, and one Wide Area Network (WAN) or Local Area Network (LAN) interface, such as Ethernet and ZigBee.
- Audio: Integrated headphone and speak amplifier provides a low power, low cost and ultra-small audio solution. Solutions for mono and stereo speakers are both available.
- Power Management: TI has a broad portfolio of LDOs that offer low cost, low noise, low quiescent current power management solutions for the signal chain and the processor.
- Battery Management: Single-cell Li-Ion rechargeable batteries may be used for longer operation time. Consider battery chargers with power path management function if system instant-on feature even with a depleted battery is desired.
