HIMSS 2011 spotlights sportable portability
Obamacare uncertainty casts faint shadow, not pall, on technology adoption
by Rick Dana Barlow
ORLANDO – Peel back the ingrained layers of pomp and circumstance surrounding
accountable care organizations, electronic health records and meaningful use and
you’d be hard-pressed not to notice one of the major undercurrents resonating
through the Health Information Management Systems Society conference and trade
show here was computer portability.
From asset – as in equipment and people – tracking software to smartphone and
tablet computer apps, more companies are rolling out packages and programs that
make managing their communication, computer devices and multiplying tasks easier
and more seamless.
In recognition of physicians carrying smartphones and tablet computers, Wavelink
Corp. parlayed its two-decade “vendor-agnostic” experience in retail, manufacturing
and logistics to healthcare as its newest market segment where it wirelessly
configures and manages the security of data and information on any mobile or
stationary device, regardless of location, courtesy of remote control tools. Wavelink
provides healthcare organizations a single console to manage their entire “wireless
ecosystem” for asset management, network security, remote device locking and
wiping and pushing out security updates. While Wavelink concentrates on the
healthcare supplier community currently it did tell Healthcare Purchasing News it
would be interested in offering similar services to integrated delivery networks and
multi-hospital systems with centralized shared-service warehouses and selfdistribution programs.
Imagine seeing virtual real-time and historical patient telemetry and wavelength
data streaming from a patient’s location to your smartphone. That’s what AirStrip
Technologies demonstrated to HPN on an iPhone. However, Chief Sales Officer
Bruce Brandes, who industry veterans may recognize from the old Enterprise
Systems Inc., said AirStrip’s tech is device- and vendor-agnostic.
“I can manage every other area of my life with these devices, so why can’t I use it
for my job?” Brandes asked rhetorically. Further, he enthused that “deploying active
mobility apps” that enable reading X-rays, images and patient telemetry and
“leveraging mobility” is “becoming an emerging standard of care.”
AirStrip apps extend beyond patient monitoring, cardiology and obstetrics that
involve a clinical dashboard linked to a patient’s electronic medical record, including
vital signs, labs, meds, at a doctor’s fingertips that Brandes coined as “meaningful
mobility.”
In fact, Brandes contended the AirStrip apps may help supply chain managers ally
and relate better with physicians by offering them these tools in lieu of sought-after
high-end implants not on contract.
Meanwhile, Avaya, a global supplier of communications systems, software and
services, strips away the need for a personal mobile device by allowing you to
program any device at any time with personal preferences geared to your position.
With Avaya’s Mobile Device Checkout 3.0, a clinician “enables” a shared or personal
mobile device at the start of his or her shift by swiping a bar code on the mobile
device and his or her identification badge. The system registers the device with his
or her unique phone number, eliminating complex login procedures or the need to
get a new contact number each time his or her shift starts. Essentially, the phone
“takes on their personality in how they programmed it with all of their settings,” said
R. Bruce Wallace, global leader healthcare solutions, including voice, video, e-mail,
messaging. Managers can assign roles and responsibilities for staff members, too,
such as access codes for patient meds and patient data, virtually negating a need for
the facility to invest in individual devices for each staff member.
Avaya’s Patient Follow-up automated contact tool checks up with patients after their
discharge from the hospital with voice automation to ask customized questions based
on the patient’s medical records and reason for hospitalization so that staff members
don’t have to be deployed for repetitive follow-up activities.
Avaya also showcased the Flare Experience, which puts voice and video
communications – as well as e-mail, instant messaging, conferencing and social
networks – at a clinician's fingertips on a single touch-screen device. The device
enables clinicians to collaborate with one another on a single computer screen,
sharing diagnoses, treatment regimens and patient data in real time. Flare debuted
on Android-enabled tablet computers and was scheduled to be offered for nonAndroid-enabled devices the following week, according to Wallace.
Motorola demonstrated its wireless infrastructure, hand-held mobile devices and
mobility services platform to integrate and care for products remotely without ever
touching them. In a curious move but by customer demand, Motorola trotted out its
corded and cradleless bar-code scanner, a year after debuting its cordless 2-D
scanner with cradle. The reason? Cordless models were lost or misplaced, but the
corded versions force clinicians to plug it in to work, including a USB port for
computer linkage. The company also touted its department- or function-configurable
WiFi phones, hybrid bar-code/passive radiofrequency identification and real-time
location system devices and when prompted by HPN, the revelation that it’s
developing a smartphone that incorporates bar-code and RFID capabilities.
Fujitsu America Inc. demonstrated an alternative to the popular Apple iPad, its
customer-centric security-enabled tablet PC with a 10-inch screen, dual active
cameras, 180-degree wide viewing capabilities, dedicated smart card and a
swappable battery with an approximate eight-hour charge. Company executives
indicated that their tablet PC targets clinicians who need to be connected while
mobile.
Philips Healthcare promoted its front-end modular patient monitoring system that
can connect to a PC, integrate with a bedside workstation, plug-and-play with a
central workstation, and even conveniently plug into older models. The durably
rugged device also can be attached to the patient during transport and continually
capture, record and store data using what it termed a “body area network” and
“intelligent software.”
Through its “collaborative intelligence platform,” M*Modal emphasized how
dictation, speech recognition and natural language processing is being incorporated
into EMR systems, making them easier to use, less restrictive and disruptive to
physicians, and more accurate in data and information capture and transmission.
Basically, a physician can talk to his or her iPhone or iPad, converting voice to text.
Ultimately, according to Don Fallati, senior vice president of marketing and product
management, these mobile devices can offer physicians context in that they will flag
something the doctor missed and assist in data mining for more meaningful use.
CenTrak Inc. discussed its RTLS infrastructure that combines dual active and
passive infrared and RFID tags for more efficient asset tracking and asset
management with error-free data. CenTrak emphasized the modularity of its system
in that it can be deployed in scalable layers, from a single small department to
facility- or enterprise-wide, for monitoring patients, staff, equipment, bed
management, hand hygiene practices, temperature and workflow.
Intermec showcased its full array of mobile computers, scanners and desktop barcoding and RFID tools that offer comprehensive coverage of patient and staff
activities, as well as device movement and usage. Intermec executives at the booth
indicated one of the key trends they’re noticing is the demand for bar-code printers
and wristband printers at the patient bedside for physician orders and prescriptions,
as well as patient record-keeping at the point of care.
With its acquisition of Perceptive Software last year Lexmark showcased its
expanded end-to-end paper and paperless documentation services. Executives at the
booth confirmed the not-so-surprising worst-kept secret that in spite of the emphasis
on electronic records and a paperless process many facilities still produce and handle
a lot of paper. Still, the company also highlighted an alternative to tablet PCs and
multiple copies of printed forms for patient records with Silverbrook Research Pty
Ltd.’s Netpage Enterprise Forms digital pen reader and digital ink-on-paper system.
The technology enables you to write and draw, as well as upload completed forms
via smartphone.
Lumidigm demonstrated its biometrics multispectral imaging sensors that can read
fingerprints without direct contact, such as through translucent gloves, water or
other surface contaminants or dry conditions. Used in popular theme parks, the
technology is easy enough for six-year-olds to 96-year-olds, noted company
executives. It uses light to spot the capillary structure beneath a fingerprint.
Lumidigm contends its fingerprint access application serves as a capable alternative
to password-, card- or token-based systems for e-prescribing to drug access.
Research In Motion (RIM) demonstrated a variety of mobile applications designed
for BlackBerry smartphones, including “Alerts & Results Viewing” and
“Hospital/Nursing Workflow.” RIM previewed its “EMR & Diagnostic Image Viewing”
solutions on the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, giving attendees test drives of the
new multi-tasking device designed to compete with the Apple iPad, and its “1-piece
solutions” for signature capture.
Fraser Edward, senior market development manager – healthcare, emphasized that
smartphones and mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous among physicians and
nurses alike for quick access to detailed patient information and to issue clinical
orders. To wit, RIM recruited clinicians from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
to discuss how they use RIM BlackBerry devices for charting, telemetry and transport
functions, among others.