可靠性是基于傳感器的醫療應用的決定性因素

　　在醫療成本上升，人口老齡化，以及早期診斷在治療疾病和挽救生命的重要性的推動下，傳感器的發展在醫療領域發揮著關鍵作用。傳感器是用于醫療應用范圍從一次性和可重復使用的輸液泵壓力傳感器溫度探針陣列，氣流傳感器在麻醉系統、腎透析機、力傳感器、磁、濕度、氣流，在一個典型的睡眠呼吸暫停機壓力傳感器。

　　傳感器被采用在這些和許多醫療應用，由于其準確性，智能，能力，體積小，功耗低，而且，首先，可靠性。本文將研究當前的醫療趨勢，以及它是如何推動傳感器技術。我們還將討論必須滿足的可靠性標準，并看一些可用的部分，體現了目前的傳感器狀態的藝術。

　　Equipment or physiology？

　　A patient’s heart rate， blood glucose， and body temperature can be monitored to help clinicians diagnose the state of illness based on accurate sensor readings. But therein lies the rub. As in all things， malfunctions exist and it’s often difficult to pinpoint whether the culprit is the device itself or the physiology of the patient.

　　If a pacemaker fails， for example， it can be that the malfunction occurred because of equipment failure or changes in the patient’s underlying native heart rhythm. Medical body sensors can be implanted or attached to the human body and when inaccurate data is gathered; sometimes it may be attributed to incorrect placement on the body， which， in turn， can seriously influence diagnosis. Fault values combined with abnormal physiological data based on illness make it challenging to determine true faults. Even environmental and logistical factors impact accuracy. Fluorescent lighting can cause data errors in pulse oximeters and devices placed on a patient’s body with adhesive tape may fall off and result in detection error.

　　All of that notwithstanding， sensor manufacturers working in the rapidly growing healthcare industry must keep safety， accuracy， and reliability moving in the right direction. To ensure that they do regulatory agencies have put in place a variety of standards that must be met.