The need for technology to assist in medical monitoring applications is becoming more necessary in society as the number of patients in hospital and clinics continues to grow. The demand on staff to monitor every individual consistently becomes necessary. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are now being used to facilitate this on-demand monitoring both at the patients home and in the hospital/clinic environment. This paper looks at the basic parameters necessary for a medical based WSN with particular focus on communication platforms and their security. These parameters will be compared and contrasted, and the main components necessary to form an ideal medical WSN will be highlighted.