With growing health awareness and the escalating cost of worldwide medical care, there is increasing emphasis on new and advanced technologies for disease prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment. Personal health monitors and other portable medical devices are making it easier for people to assess their wellness, adopt better lifestyles, and prevent the majority of serious illnesses. These devices also improve the management of existing, long-term conditions outside the hospital environment. Wearable units connected to treatment centers can alert health professionals to problems before they become serious, no matter where the patient is located.

Clinical medical devices such as patient monitors, blood analyzers, and dialysis machines are primarily used in clinical and laboratory settings. Many of these devices are microcontroller or microprocessor based electro-mechanical instruments that use a common set of building blocks. These building blocks include power or battery control, a user interface (keypad, LCD monitor, and audio control), flash/EEPROM for data logging, and pump/motor control. They differ in the requirements for the sensor and signal conditioning circuitry as well as the mechanics. For example, a blood analyzer requires acentrifuge, and a hemodialysis machine requires a dialyzer (filter).