When you are rushed to hospital the last thing you want to worry about is filling in paperwork. And you certainly hope it's the last thing on the doctors' and nurses' minds. Data General understands this and is showing off some new point-of-care devices so doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals can spend less time administrating and more time looking after their patients.
The company is concentrating on "ways of bringing patient records to the bedside," according to Andre Michau, marketing director for Data General's Pacific region. A DG-built second generation mobile computer called WiiN-PAD has been specifically designed for the healthcare environment. It will be used for patient record management, entering information on the hospital's clinical information system and even remote diagnostics. At just over 1kg, the WiiN-PAD operates on Windows CE and has an 8" colour touch-screen LCD display. The system operates on a radio LAN.
This means that ambulance crews or mobile healthcare workers on home visits can input or recall patient details on the fly. The back of the unit has a barcode reader so the label of any medicine dispensed can be scanned and kept track of. This lens can be swapped to become a black-and-white digital camera that captures greyscale images.
Although limited by the lack of colour, this feature could be useful for remote diagnosis. An image of an injury at the scene of an accident could be taken and transmitted back to the hospital, which could begin to prepare for the patient's arrival.
The unit has a battery life of up to eight hours-the length of a hospital shift-and has a docking station in which a spare battery can be kept charged. Michau says the WiiN-PADS are very robust and can take a lot of knocking around. The handheld WiiN-PADS unit can also be sterilised.
DG is also focusing on the clinical information system (CIS) which the WiiN-PAD accesses patient data from. Although the technology has been widely adopted in Western Australia, hospitals on the east coast have been less enthusiastic, according to Michau. Many hospitals are stuck with "old systems with proprietary software and hardware."
Ballarat hospital in Victoria is one of the first hospitals to adopt this new technology. Ballarat Health Services and the hospitals of the Grampians Region of Western Victoria are taking on 90 WiiN-PADs as part of their program to install a state-of-the-art clinical information system in the region.
The technology will "impact on every area of clinical care," according to Dr Ian Graham, executive director of clinical services at Ballarat Health Services. Ballarat's multi-million dollar implementation will take place over the next 10 to 15 months and includes several Avion 3700 servers.
Graham said the WiiN-PADS will be used by anyone who needs access to the CIS in the hospital and said he was impressed by the WiiN-PAD's portability. Although the new system will replace the current paper medical record system used, Graham said "paperless healthcare is a long way away. We'll be using a hybrid system for a few years".
Data General showcased its range of healthcare equipment at the HIC '99 HealthCare Conference and Exhibition in Hobart last week. Other answers to mobile patient care include a wireless clinical medical workstation by Tremont, that can be wheeled to patient bedsides around the ward. The PC runs on a Pentium for 10 to 14 hours depending on the processor size and runs Windows. A standard unit runs on a Pentium 166 or 233 with a 2GB hard drive. It comes with a 12.1" or 17.7" display and a full-sized keyboard and mouse.
