Graphic - courtesy - Clarinet
Healthcare
- Introductory Comments
Details...
There are a number of attributes of this
industry that make it ideal for employing mobile computing technology. First
of all , it is one of the largest
industries if you measure its size in terms of the total dollars spent and
people employed. It affects us all and therefore, it is also a mission
-critical industry - literally. A large number of high-priced professionals -
physicians, surgeons and nurses employed in this industry do not render
services from a fixed location and are essentially mobile within one
or multiple hospitals, clinics or home care institutions. They need to be in
constant touch with specialists who can render advice in their specific
specialty area of expertise , sometimes from
remote locations.
Traditional versus New
Approach
Doctors have, in the past relied on clip boards and bedside charts to
track patient's health. Now, it is changing. Doctors are gradually,
especially the medical students, interns and younger group, are switching to
PDAs and other handheld devices.
Though physicians tend to
have a reputation for resisting the move towards computers, they seem to be
intrigued by and interested in mobile computing involving untethered (i.e.
wireless) connections and specially designed portable devices. They like the
idea of calling up patient records, researching a disease and ordering
prescriptions from anywhere in the hospital or home.
As examples of healthcare
applications, Summit Health Services in Greenburgh, PA, USA has developed
MobileNurse, software that enables home-care nurses to
access inventory, call up patient records and Medicare information on
wireless notebooks, and to compare notes with other care givers. MobileNurse
uses the Mobitex Ram network to access a centralized database. Similarly,
other hospitals like Grace Hospital use IBM system and hand-held computers
for recording vital information
being in surgery room.
Additionally, doctors are increasingly
using hand-held devices and pen-based Palm Pads connected to hospital LANs to record patient records. As handwriting
recognition software improves, so will the use of this technology grow in
healthcare.
Business Case for Handhelds
in Healthcare
Because of the high cost of physician
services, business cases for the use of mobile computing are relatively easy
to build. Even small increases in physician productivity or diagnostic
accuracy translate into savings sufficient to justify the expense of mobile
computing solutions. With the current all-pervasive squeeze on healthcare
budgets everywhere, tremendous attention is being paid to the ability of
technology to reduce costs.
Final justification for
handheld devices for physicians is that doctor's coats lend themselves
ideally to the size of handheld devices. You do not need Docker's new Mobile
pants!.
Players
Associations - MoHCA - Mobile Healthcare
Alliance - works with heath care professionals to ensure professional
practices and patient trust in mobile data applications.
Veriprise
Wireless Corporation has developed Veriprise Wireless Platform
that acts as a wireless infrastructure gateway, which provides data
encryption, user authentication and audit reporting. It also provides tool
kits to support health care requirements - like privacy , such as HIPAA for
secure transfer of information to health providers, and patients, over
wireless devices.
Vendors
Applications:
Electronic
Patient Exit Survey
Emergency Medical Services
Healthcare
General Applications
Home Care
Mobile Pharmacy and Prescription from PlanetRx
Patient Alarm
Notification Systems
Patient Records, Bed Visits by Doctors
Remote Prescription & Specimen Management Services
Tele-diagnostics
Early adopters
-
Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro,
North Carolina, USA finished testing in mid 2001, a mobile infrared
system which allows doctors to synchronize their patients history
information and download treatment plans that is available for that
patient from one of four infrared stations. The system is based on
MercuryMD Inc.'s Staging database and client software with Extended System's
XtendConnectServer. The system provides room number, and all the
lab, radiology, and other information that is current at that
moment. Saving was in wasted time at a workstation to check
patient records. The hospital chose infrared stations because of the
cost ($50,000 for infrared versus projected $500,000 for wireless).
Wireless is a future option. The hospital was able to come up with a
good business case. Apart from physician's productivity improvement,
pharmacies and labs save (one hour per day 12-15%).
-
MDOfices.Com Inc. has signed
up with IBM for a service (available in October 2001) that allows
doctors to record patient notes on Pocket PC devices using spoken
commands. This information is housed in IBM p660 and p640 Unix
servers. The notes are verified and transcribed by an outside
service. Then it is e-mailed to patient's pharmacies or labs for
prescriptions or tests. Average price is $3.00 per page of transcription
service. This is less sophisticated but does automate some of the
processes. And it saves money, according to the customer.
