The summer is shaping up to be a busy one. Next month, I'll be presenting at the AAMI meeting in Boston on the topic of Point of Care Automation - with clinical engineering icon, Yadin David. There are a number of very interesting sessions scheduled on connectivity, systems integration and patient safety. This is always a great event, and I'm really looking forward to all the new research, best practices and products.

A week later I'll be back in Boston for the HCMDSS/MD PnP conference (that's High Confidence Medical Devices, Software and Systems/Medical Device Plug and Play). This event has pulled in a number of luminary figures keen on interoperability and error-resistant systems in health care - including Dr Robert Kolodner. Past meetings have been dominated by academics, providers (especially the big university teaching hospitals) and government - it will be interesting gage the level of vendor involvement. The current commercial availability of interoperability features is certainly not a result of insufficient science or technology, so a lack of vendor interest could be indicative of their relative interest in interoperability. Conference co-chair, Julian Goldman has promised me there will be some interesting announcements at the conference.

Then in July I'll be co-chairing a track at the fourth annual Healthcare Unbound conference, for the first time in San Francisco. Last year was my first involvement with this event, and I was impressed. This is probably the most focused annual event on remote patient monitoring and chronic disease management in existence - with a great mix of providers, vendors, academics, government and a few VCs sniffing around.

Fortunately there's nothing planned for August - too hot. And September I'll be taking off a couple weeks to go to the desert in Nevada. And all of this is in addition to client work - it's shaping up as a very busy summer.

Pictured right is the Ant radio for wireless sensors and personal area network applications, shot at last years Healthcare Unbound conference.