Healthcare Wireless and Device Connectivity

Centrak RTLS Content of Web Based Event by Integra Systems, Inc.

After final review of content; here is is the presentation delivered for Centrak. I am sure it will start a lot of discussions in this space. This is an area regarding RTLS and the topics that are many are trying to figure out. It is is hoped that the intended material provides the educational value. As always...comments are welcome.
Download 11_17_RTLS_Webcast_Presentation_FINAL

M Health Summit Integra Systems Presentation Next Monday December 05, 2011

Well I have made the final adjustments to the PDF Presentation and submitted this. This should be an exciting three days in Washington D.C. See the link and JPEG of the title of this presentation.

http://www.mhealthsummit.org/

Imec unveils innovative technology for an ECG Patch

While I have been in the patient monitoring space for thirty years, it is felt that this definitely could be the revolution in patient monitoring as we see it. Definitely the growth is outside the acute care area and moving to sub-acute and the home. The challenge is how do you leverage the available communication technologies to provide low cost, long battery life, and ultimate flexibility. Can you drive down costs by using existing low power Bluetooth and then leverage this to communicate to your laptop and/or smart phone? Yes. I also find it quite profound in the use of accelerometers, as this could help provide early warning detection of potential falls and/or even detection of early stage Parkinsons. I see this as a natural fit (and use model) in post operative CABGS, (Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting), and ICD implants (post operative). The guy in the video most definitely had his chest cracked as you can see via his scar from the sternotomy. Also looks like he has a pacemaker implanted and it is pacing by the inverted ECG, with ventricular spike. See attached and YouTube video. Finally, you will notice the lack of any display. I find it amazing in the traditional intensive care units you do not have folks watching central stations anymore and/or nurses are not watching the beside monitor displays. Besides if you are gathering this information in the cloud and storing this, what is rationale for the extra cost here. Again, keep it simple. Understand the I-Phone was not a new phone, but a new way of doing things.

Download 2011-10-imec-unveils-technology-ecg-patch

 

Motorola RAZR Android LTE Phone and WiFi

While I applaud Motorola for their great devices, the reality is also battery life. Motorola packed in a 1,780 mAh Li-Ion pack into the DROIDs chassis. On WiFi with cellular data turned off, the battery dropped to 90 in under 30 minutes. Over the space of a couple of hours with mimimal usage, it burned through 40 percent. That is with LTE turned off. WiFi while cute to put into celluar device, never was designed for enterprise use...my opinion. Oh yes, try turning on Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS location based services as well as LTE! Power hog.

LTE versus WLAN in Healthcare

Today I was asked, well where do both play and is WLAN going to displace LTE inside a hospital? Definitely not...both have their specific role and requirements. The WLAN will continue to be built out and support "internal applications". While dual mode I-Pads, I-Phones, and Android devices will be constantly used, the physician will probably use the LTE network for "his/her" office and personal communications and when appropriate will jump on the internal WLAN to access the hospital say, EMR application. Again, it all depends upon the user experience and workflow. Hospital employees tend to go to work in the hospital and stay in the hospital. The will use WLAN data driven devices and WLAN enabled VoIP phones. Physicians tend to go to the hospital, other clinics, their offices, and highly mobile in-between. So at the end of the day, both wireless technologies definitely are needed and have their specific fit.

Next Generation DAS (Distributed Antenna System)

It seems that it makes a lot of sense to look at use fiber optics to replace the coaxial infrastructure. Not only will you have the bandwidth you need, but great cost savings can and will be realized. Look forward in 2012 as industry is changing yet again.