Wi-Fi Alliance® and Continua® Health Alliance Collaborate on Personal Connected Health

AUSTIN, Texas and BEAVERTON, Ore., Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wi-Fi Alliance and Continua Health Alliance have entered into an agreement to facilitate and promote the adoption of Wi-Fi networking technology in connected health applications. The agreement enables cooperative efforts for joint technical review of Wi-Fi Alliance and Continua Health Alliance specifications and guidelines in order to facilitate interoperability of personal health and fitness applications, thus fueling a great user experience and even faster adoption.

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The agreement comes as Wi-Fi technology becomes standard in hospitals, doctor's offices and healthcare facilities. Wi-Fi is increasingly being used to connect patient monitoring devices, home healthcare tools and more. Health-related products from companies such as Draeger, Healthsense and Roche have already achieved the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ designation. The Wi-Fi Alliance has a formal work initiative underway to explore additional certification needs for Wi-Fi across a variety of personal and clinical health care use cases.

"The health care industry has truly embraced Wi-Fi technology, which has resulted in improved patient relations, cost savings and organizational efficiencies," said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO, Edgar Figueroa. "Our collaboration with Continua Health Alliance will help drive the advancement and evolution of Wi-Fi, by providing a known and trusted technology to connect health and fitness devices."

Wi-Fi technology has key attributes which make it an excellent choice to connect personal health devices. Wi-Fi provides whole-home coverage, IP-based communications, industry-standard security protections with push-button setup, and advanced power management mechanisms. With the addition of Wi-Fi Direct™, there will be new ways devices can also connect even when there is no Wi-Fi network available.

"Given its ubiquity in the home, Wi-Fi will play a key role in empowering individuals to better manage their fitness and health," said Chuck Parker, executive director, Continua Health Alliance. "Creating and implementing cost-effective personal connected healthcare technologies that work together to enable individuals to be proactive about their healthcare requires a rich marketplace of interoperable health devices and services. Working with the base that the Wi-Fi Alliance has established will help make that a reality."

Continua established a product certification program with a consumer-recognizable logo and released its first set of design guidelines in January of 2009, signifying the promise of interoperability across certified products. The testing program provides assurance that Continua Certified™ products will work together and have demonstrated a capability to connect in a rigorous testing environment. Products that carry the Continua Certified logo are 'future-proofed' so they are easy to use and re-use, less labor-intensive, free of inefficient technology duplication, and will not become prematurely obsolete as vendors change models. Continua has certified many products to date and expects to certify many more in the coming months. To see a list of these, visit the Continua website.

The Wi-Fi Alliance launched the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED program in March 2000. It provides a widely recognized designation of interoperability and quality, and it helps to ensure that Wi-Fi-enabled products deliver the best user experience. All Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products implement the latest in security technology - Wi-Fi Protected Access® 2 (WPA2™). The Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 9,500 product certifications, encouraging the expanded use of Wi-Fi products and services in new and established markets.

About the Wi-Fi Alliance

The Wi-Fi Alliance is a global non-profit industry association of hundreds of leading companies devoted to the proliferation of Wi-Fi technology across devices and market segments. With technology development, market building, and regulatory programs, the Wi-Fi Alliance has enabled widespread adoption of Wi-Fi worldwide. Learn more and search for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products at www.wi-fi.org.

Wi-Fi®, Wi-Fi Alliance®, WMM®, Wi-Fi Protected Access® (WPA), the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo, the Wi-Fi logo, the Wi-Fi ZONE logo, and the Wi-Fi Protected Setup logo are registered trademarks of the Wi-Fi Alliance; Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™, Wi-Fi Direct™, Wi-Fi Protected Setup™, Wi-Fi Multimedia™, and the Wi-Fi Alliance logo are trademarks of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

About Continua Health Alliance

Continua Health Alliance is a non-profit, open industry organization of healthcare and technology companies joining together in collaboration to improve the quality of personal healthcare. With more than 240 member companies around the world, Continua is dedicated to establishing a system of interoperable personal connected health solutions with the knowledge that extending those solutions into the home fosters independence, empowers individuals and provides the opportunity for truly personalized health and wellness management. For more information visit: www.continuaalliance.org.

Continua Health Alliance and Wi-Fi are registered trademarks of their respective organizations.

SOURCE Wi-Fi Alliance