Reader Kyle slipped me this URL today, proclaiming 802.11a/g support for Philips patient monitors. Telemetry is not included - you'll still have to buy proprietary WMTS access points that only work with their telemetry monitors. The radios are packaged as "adapters" that fit in the patient monitor enclosures and, "operate wirelessly on the Philips IntelliVue 802.11 a/g infrastructure."

Determining exactly what an "IntelliVue 802.11 a/g infrstructure" is will be one of my goals of HIMSS07. Further explanation is offered lower on the page:

The IntelliVue
802.11 Infrastructure is part of the IntelliVue Clinical Network which
is designed specifically to manage the flow of time-critical patient
monitoring data. Physical or logical isolation protects the entire
wired/wireless clinical network from many of the day-today hazards of
business networks, including viruses and transmission delays.

At the same time, the IntelliVue Clinical Network can maintain a
controlled connection with the hospital LAN so that valuable patient
information, such as lab results or PACS still images, can be delivered
to the bedside monitor or central station without disrupting the flow
of physiologic data or alarms.

That sounds like a private network with a dedicated infrastructure - geez, you might as well run everything on WMTS (which you'll have to for telemetry) for all those caveats. From their reference to "time-critical patient monitoring data" they must be running some non-TCP/IP time determinant variation of Ethernet/802.11, but I'll bet they're not.

The infrastructure supports IntelliVue monitors down to the M20 (pictured right). This leaves lower acuity monitors (you know, the one's that move around the most) like the M5, VM series, and new VS3 vital signs monitor out of luck. I'm sure there's more to this story...