Mobilkom Austria and the eHealth systems team from the Austrian Research Centers (ARC) have unveiled a blood pressure monitoring solution that uses NFC to securely transmit patient data over the air.

The UA-767 Plus NFC, based on the well established UA-767 blood pressure monitor, enables patients to take their blood pressure at home and then transmit their results to their doctor simply by waving their NFC-enabled mobile phone in front of the blood pressure monitor. The results are captured, encrypted and forwarded by the phone to their doctor’s medical database. This not only saves times but also allows for a more precise evaluation of data and a more patient-oriented medical therapy, say the team.

“The ‘Keep in Touch’ technology not only helps to process data but it also offers a telemedicine service that connects chronically ill patients with their doctors which can lead to an optimization of their therapy,” says ARC eHealth systems’ Gunter Schreier.

Professor Friedrich Fruhwald of the Graz University of Medicine added: “Based on my first personal experiences with telemedicine I’m convinced that these applications will soon reach a breakthrough, especially for chronic illnesses.”

And, says Hannes Ametsreiter, Mobilkom Austria’s chief marketing officer, “The high degree of consumer convenience behind this service is what convinced us to join this project… As the Austrian innovation and market leader in mobile communications, it was a logical step for us to support the research work of the eHealth systems team of the Austrian Research Centers by providing our technological know-how, supplying the necessary technical equipment and contributing additional budgetary resources.”

NFC-enabled phones have been commercially available in Austria since September 2007 when Mobilkom Austria launched a commercial NFC service in conjunction with NXP, Nokia, ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) and Wiener Linien, Vienna’s main public transport provider.

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