I was talking with someone in the industry who pointed me to this PDF file on Philips Medical Systems' web site. This electronic brochure for Philips' IntelliVue Telemetry System was remarkable for the use of the 2.4GHz band (still DECT though). My curiosity aroused, I looked further and found this PDF, touting the IntelleVue 802.11a/g infrastructure.

No, according to the Philips marketing manager I spoke with, they are not going to be among the many vendors to announce 802.11a support at HIMSS next week. These are their products for the ROW - that's "rest of world" in vendor lingo, or ABH "anywhere but here" for those who don't want to buy a separate and proprietary wireless infrastructure just for your patient monitors. Since other countries don't have dedicated frequency bands for medical telemetry, Philips must use other frequencies for their patient monitors. And yet, the following text is interesting:

The IntelliVue 802.11 Infrastructure can coexist with WMTS telemetry systems. It is not designed for use with or near other 802.11 networks that use the same spectrum. For example, enterprise 802.11b/g networks (2.4 GHz) can be used in the same space when our infrastructure is set to use 802.11a (5 GHz).

Hmmm.