One of the great short-term selling points for mobile point-of-care technology is that it allows for the creation of many new mobile health services without necessitating the development of new technologies. As operators and device makers compete to make embedded wireless connectivity a reality across a broad range of products--as opposed to just phones and netbooks--healthcare remains a key proving ground.

Earlier this week, when announcing the launch of a new division dedicated to providing mobile solutions to government agencies and pharmaceutical companies, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said in a keynote speech at Informa's Mobile Healthcare Summit in London, "The question is not whether governments should use mobile health, it is how they should use it."

Colao understands that mobile technology has a significant role to play in the provision of healthcare, primarily in the simplification of workflows, statistical analysis and record keeping, as well as by giving professional healthcare providers the ability to support lifestyle choices for the chronically ill.

According to a Rethink Wireless report, the company's new division will aim for two advantages from this latest initiative: gaining a strategic early role as a consultant as the market evolves; and gaining actual revenues by running and managing the services over its networks, where machine-to-machine and embedded business models will be increasingly significant for generating new revenues.

With social objectives that include reducing hospital stays, enabling the chronically ill and the elderly to live at home, cutting wasted healthcare spending, and improving fitness levels and preventative medicine, Vodafone is one of many companies looking to wireless devices as a way to advance the remote monitoring of healthcare.

Another is Qualcomm's Life Sciences unit, which is working on monitoring devices that are slated to hit the market in the short term. In addition, the organization is committed to further reaching developments, such as a Compressed Sensing algorithm for body area networks. This technology offers an application layer technique that reduces the amount of data acquired and sent via a BAN, to shrink power consumption dramatically. Qualcomm officials say the company already has applied the technology successfully to blood pressure and heart rate sensors, the Rethink Wireless article states.

Philips also tops the list, having secured a €200m loan from the European Investment Bank earlier this week to fund R&D for a host of healthcare projects, including image guided intervention and home healthcare.