In addition to his work at Scripps, he is vice chairman at the West Wireless Health Institute, a nonprofit medical research organization dedicated to innovating, validating, and advocating for the use of technologies, including wireless medical devices, that aim to reduce health care costs by transforming medicine.

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The X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm seeks to achieve this by combining advancements in expert systems and medical point of care data such as wireless sensors, advancements in medical imaging and microfluidics.

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Companies involved in emergency medical equipment that elect to include wireless broadband into their products are in line to prosper along with other companies on the periphery of wireless.

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Jacobs said the interdisciplinary reach appealed to him, as a veteran of a wireless communications industry that now ranges from cell phones to medical devices.

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Designed for stroke patients and those suffering from brain or spinal cord injuries, these so-called medical micropower networks (MMN) use a set of implanted electrodes and a wearable wireless controller to stimulate the muscles of a paralyzed user.

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