Story on Time.com about doctors using iPads in the hospital

We all know that doctors (and medical students) love using iPads in the hospital setting. This story on Time.com is titled, "TIME’s Mobile Tech Issue: Better Care Delivered by iPad, M.D." It's a fairly short story but it demonstrates how students and attending physicians are using mobile devices to improve patient communication/education and to improve clinical workflow.

The Joint Commission says "not acceptable" to text orders for patients

Last week, the Joint Commission issued a notice that said that it was not acceptable for physicians and other health care professionals to text orders for patients in hospitals. Here's the excerpt:

Texting Orders

Is it acceptable for physicians and licensed independent practitioners (and other practitioners allowed to write orders) to text orders for patients to the hospital or other healthcare setting?

No it is not acceptable for physicians or licensed independent practitioners to text orders for patients to the hospital or other healthcare setting. This method provides no ability to verify the identity of the person sending the text and there is no way to keep the original message as validation of what is entered into the medical record.

Custom Network Solutions from Sprint

Expand your hospital's wireless capabilities with Sprint Custom Network Solutions.

Every second counts. No industry feels this sense of urgency more than healthcare. Now you can modernize your hospital with a customized wireless infrastructure, powered by the Sprint 3G and 4G networks. With the latest smartphones, tablets, apps and more, physicians can monitor patients' treatment from virtually anywhere — inside or outside the hospital.

Download a free whitepaper to learn how mobile devices and tablets can transform healthcare – and how to ensure coverage throughout your entire organization. Go to http://wireless.mysprinthealthcare.com.

With Custom Network Solutions from Sprint, you can:

• Expand coverage and improve signal strength within the hospital to help eliminate dead zones.
• Unify new and existing systems so they can run on a single network.
• Support seamless wireless access to electronic medical records, minimizing time spent searching through files.
• Increase network capacity to handle higher-volume traffic from employees, visitors and contractors with ease.
• Keep patient data confidential with security features incorporated into wireless and wireline networks.

Happtique

Happtique is the first mobile application store developed by healthcare professionals for healthcare professionals. Happtique offers healthcare enterprises—like hospitals, continuing care facilities, and physician practices—the ability to create individually branded, secure substores that support employee and patient mobile technology use.

Founded in 2010, Happtique is powered by AppCentral™, a mobile application management company.

iPhones Adopted by The Nebraska Medical Center

The Nebraska Medical Center becomes first academic hospital to use iPhones to improve nurse communication

SARASOTA, Fla. June 14, 2011 – Nurses and clinicians at The Nebraska Medical Center, the state’s largest health care facility, will soon be using iPhones to improve their communication and increase efficiency, thanks to Voalté’s first-of-its-kind integrated communication solution. The Nebraska Medical Center is the first academic-based medical center in the country to implement the Voalté solution.

Voalté, an application that consolidates voice, alarm and text on the versatile iPhone platform, was selected by the Medical Center after a year-long mobile technology review and assessment of legacy handsets and voice badges.

Smartphone Strategy for Hospitals (webinar)

3 Steps to Get Your Smartphone Strategy Rolling
Voalté webinar series

What would your hospital do with an additional $4 million?

Research shows that the average hospital is at risk of losing $4 million due to poor communication. That’s why smart hospitals are responding quickly by planning for smartphone integration. But it takes more than just the technology to make it successful - it also takes the proper implementation strategy and a change in workflow.

Join Denis Baker, CIO of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, and Melita Howell, Application Architect of Texas Children’s Hospital as they share steps and secrets to successful mobile integrations.

By attending this complimentary webinar, you will:

• Learn the critical steps involved in developing and executing a mobile strategy
• Gain essential tips on how to successfully implement and roll-out smartphone technology
• Learn how to bridge the gap between IT and clinical
• Be armed with various reference documents such as checklists, white papers, and much more

Who should attend?
Healthcare information technology and nursing executives interested in increasing efficiency, streamlining workflow and improving patient care.

Thursday, May 19, 2011
2 p.m. Eastern/1 p.m. Central/12 p.m. Mountain/11 a.m. Pacific

Register here.

Hospital Smartphone Messaging

Amcom has a new white paper titled: Industry Survey Results on Smartphone Trends

Amcom Software surveyed more than 300 healthcare organizations about the use of smartphones. Survey participants were from hospitals of all sizes across the United States and included clinical leadership, IT, telecommunications, and call center supervisor titles. The survey was conducted to better understand the healthcare industry and how mobile devices are making an impact. In this document, you will find a summary of the results from the survey.

You can access the white paper here (registration required)

Here some additional information about Amcom and their smartphone solution called Amcom Mobile Connect:

Device Consolidation with Smartphone Messaging

Mobile Device Madness 

Today’s smartphones and other mobile devices have brought with them new possibilities, but also new challenges in healthcare. Physicians, nurses, and administrators often carry several devices at all times. A BlackBerry®, iPhone®, Android® or Cisco® phone, often alongside one or more pagers—it’s become cumbersome for staff members and IT teams alike. Likewise, the need for two-way communications and delivery confirmations has become increasingly important to ensure efficiency and patient safety.

The time has come to leverage smartphones for everything from code calls and consult requests to personal communications. Amcom Mobile Connect™ makes this possible.

Versus Releases Industry’s First Mobile App for Healthcare RTLS

(Traverse City, Michigan, February 1, 2011) – Versus Technology today announces release of its Enterprise View Mobile (EVM) application for customers using the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Available at no charge, Versus customers can download the Versus EVM app from iTunes beginning today.

Versus EVM provides users access to patient, staff and equipment locations on mobile devices. Versus EVM is synced to the Versus Advantages™ Real-time Locating System (RTLS) and provides a unique user experience based on user login credentials. Versus EVM enables on-the-go access to any existing Versus floorplan as well as a badge-centric list view optimized for the mobile device experience.

Licensed directly from Versus, Versus EVM is available to customers with an Enterprise license. Please contact Versus for platform pre-requisites and configuration service pricing.

Research on Smartphone Readiness in Hospitals

Voalté Releases Research on Smartphone Readiness in Hospitals
Healthcare industry is among the fastest growing handheld device markets

SARASOTA, Fla. Jan. 26, 2011
– Voalté, a leading developer of innovative point-of-care communications software on the iPhone and BlackBerry smartphone devices, has announced the release of a new white paper, ‘The Smartphone Tsunami- Will Your Hospital Sink or Swim?” The white paper is designed to assist hospital leadership in defining a mobile strategy and workflow guidelines for smartphone usage – from setting the strategic vision to managing devices.

According to the report, “Hospitals must first conduct a site assessment in which all stakeholders are interviewed and issues are discussed to help formulate a comprehensive mobility strategy. Pilots and proofs of concept help test new technology and the perceived impact on clinical workflow. After the initial site assessment, a deeper dive needs to focus on the hospital’s infrastructure to address both the physical and digital landscape.”

The paper covers the following elements of creating a mobility strategy:

* Clinical site assessment
* Pilots and new technologies
* Staying agile
* Training and support
* Preparing the infrastructure
* Device and network security
* Alarm and device management
* Aligning workflows

To download the entire white paper, please visit: http://bit.ly/fqi8H9.

Voalté’s iPhone-based Solution Speeds Clinical Communication at Texas Children’s Hospital

Texas Children’s Hospital becomes first pediatric hospital in the nation to harness Voalté at the point of care

SARASOTA, Fla. January 18, 2011 – Voalté announced today that Texas Children’s Hospital will become the first pediatric facility in the country and the first hospital in Texas to use iPhones with Voalté’s innovative solution for point-of-care communication. The hospital will roll out iPhones in the new West Campus facility and maternity center over the next few months.

The Voalté application consolidates voice, alarm and text on the versatile iPhone platform. Nurses and clinicians at Texas Children’s Hospital will be able to send and receive presence-based text messages, make high definition voice calls across the hospital VoIP system, and receive critical care alarms on the iPhone, providing faster response to patient needs.

EXTENSION® iPhone app

Did you know that there are now more than 2,000 medical applications for use on smart phone devices including the truly unique EXTENSION® iPhone application that allows physicians and nurses to receive nurse call alerts, critical lab result notifications, complete cardiology, pathology and radiology reports, and more. This is a sign that healthcare organizations like yours are becoming active participants in the booming m-Health community.

The EXTENSION Apple iPhone Application Streamlines:

* Availability of Patient Reports
* Critical Lab Result Notifications
* Physician to Nurse Communication & Interaction
* And More…

EXTENSION, INC. is headquartered in Fort Wayne, IN and is the developer of the EXTENSION® Solution Suite (ESS). EXTENSION is focused on serving the needs of healthcare organizations, both large and small. Our ESS expands Cisco Unified Communications and smart phones into clinical workflow tools automating notifications using text messages, Text-To-Speech (TTS) phone calls and emails, as well as turning Cisco’s award-winning IP Phones into user interfaces for clinical, administrative and revenue cycle data.

Click here to learn more about the EXTENSION® iPhone app.

Frisbie Memorial Hospital Adopts iPhones for Point-of-Care Communication

We're seeing more hospitals truly becoming "digital" as smartphones become more powerful. This is even happening to smaller hospitals. Here's an interesting recent press release:

Frisbie Memorial Hospital Adopts iPhones for Point-of-Care Communication
Innovative Voalté solution to improve nurse communication

SARASOTA, Fla. Oct. 12, 2010 – Nurses and other point-of-care workers at Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.H. will soon be using iPhones to improve their communication and increase efficiency, thanks to Voalté’s first-of-its-kind integrated communication solution.

The Voalté application consolidates voice, alarm and text on the versatile iPhone platform. The solution will enable the nurses and clinicians at Frisbie to send and receive presence-based text messages and make high definition voice calls across the hospital VoIP system, providing faster response to patient needs.

Frisbie’s selection of the Voalté solution was the result of a technology review and assessment that began more than one year ago.

Smart Hospitals: Embracing Smartphones at the Point of Care

Voalté has a free whitepaper titled, "Smart Hospitals: Embracing Smartphones at the Point of Care".

Here's a partial summary:

Compared to today’s medical breakthroughs, hospital communication systems fail to keep pace. Outdated paging systems and multiple communications device cause confusion and reduce efficiency in hospitals. Smartphones offer a solution to many of today’s healthcare communication issues. With PC-like functionality and advanced capabilities, smartphones provide a single interface to make calls, send texts, manage schedules, organize tasks, view online literature, and...

You can download the white paper here (PDF).

Voalté provides compelling software solutions for healthcare institutions that solve communication problems at the point-of-care. We believe that better, more efficient communication improves clinical performance, which in turn improves patient care, safety and satisfaction.

Smart Hospitals: Embracing Smartphones at the Point of Care

There's a free whitepaper by Voalté titled, "Smart Hospitals: Embracing Smartphones at the Point of Care." You can read this paper by clicking here.

Learn how the latest generation of smartphones from Apple and RIM combined with the cutting-edge software can create a compelling solution that will improve point-of-care communication while enabling advances in mobile wireless applications.

Voalté provides technology solutions for hospital paging systems, nurse calls systems and wireless patient monitoring to improve hospital communications.

MedWatcher (iPhone app) tracks drug safety

Here's an interesting story from the Boston Globe:

The team from Children’s Hospital Boston that brought “Outbreaks Near Me” to smartphones during last year’s H1N1 epidemic has now launched a similar application for tracking and reporting problems with drug safety.

MedWatcher, another app for the iPhone available for free at the iTunes store, holds information about thousands of medications from US Food and Drug Administration databases. It sends alerts from FDA and news media sources on drugs, tailored to the user’s interests.

Here's a description of the app:

Stay up to date with the latest news and government safety alerts for the prescription medicines you take. Submit any side effects you experience to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make drugs safer for everyone.

MedWatcher is a mobile tool for both healthcare professionals and the general public. Anyone can submit an adverse event report to FDA using the easy-to-use form on MedWatcher, or post to our online community to talk to others taking the same meds. In the MyDrugs section, you can make a quick list of all the prescription medicines your family or patients take and track the latest developments.

Clinicians will find MedWatcher to be a vast improvement over the paper and fax FDA MedWatch form. No more cramped text boxes or tiny font! Do it at your convenience and fulfill your professional obligations in a convenient way. Get your patients involved in their health.

Take control. Participate in your health care.

This is a project of Childrens Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, and the University of North Carolina.

Click here to learn about this app on the Apple App Store.

How do you sanitize your smartphone in the hospital?

I'm not talking about erasing your data. If you're a health care professional, you're probably looking for effective (and safe) ways of sanitizing your smartphone and getting rid of all those germs and microbes that may be on your device. You don't want to pass along MRSA or VRE in the hospital, do you? I think it would be a fascinating study to evaluate how much MRSA or VRE we can find on hospital smartphones. For those who don't know, MRSA and VRE are antibiotic-resistant organisms that cause significant problems in the hospital setting.

So, what do you use to sanitize your smartphone? It won't survive an autoclave. Will antimicrobial wipes damage the device? Will alcohol pads suffice? The old soap and water won't do the trick, so what works? There's actually a device out there called Violight. It uses UV to sanitize your smartphone and here's what they're claiming: Germicidal UV light kills strep, e.coli, salmonella, listeria, and the H1N1 virus. It makes sense, doesn't it? My Philips Sonicare toothbrush includes a UV sanitation chamber.

Here's a little promotional video showing you the Violight.


Will we see a Violight at every nursing station? How about outside of every patient's room? I wonder if Violight has secured major contracts with hospitals yet.

Voalté Releases New Findings on the Use of Smartphones in Hospitals

Voalté Releases New Findings on the Use of Smartphones in Hospitals
Smartphones provide a new platform for improving patient care

SARASOTA, Fla. May 10, 2010– Voalté, a leading developer of innovative point-of-care communications software on the iPhone and BlackBerry smartphone devices has announced the release of a white paper, ‘Smart Hospitals- Embracing Smartphones at the Point of Care’. The white paper includes information on communication inefficiencies within hospitals that cause confusion and reduce efficiency, ultimately leading to nurse dissatisfaction and increasing the staffing shortage.

According to the report, “While medical breakthroughs and advancements happen every single day, our hospital communication systems tend to lag behind other technology improvements. Researchers estimate that U.S. hospitals waste $12 billion annually due to poor communication. For a typical 500 bed, acute-care hospital, communication problems between physicians and nurses creates an annual $4 million economic burden.”

The paper covers the following topics:
· Challenges of traditional healthcare communications
· Activities on which nurses spend their time
· Significant benefits smartphones offer healthcare workers

To download the entire white paper, please visit: http://www.voalte.com/Smart-Hospitals.aspx?source=smwhp.

About Voalté
Voalté provides compelling software solutions for healthcare institutions that solve communication problems at the point-of-care. Voalté products are designed to be intuitive, high value, mission critical applications running on the latest generation of touch-based smartphones. For more information, visit www.Voalte.com or call 941.312.2830.

Hospital-issued PDAs and smartphones

Do hospital-based residency programs still issue PDAs and smartphones? At one time, one of the major benefits associated with certain residency programs included:

• Laptop and/or PDA issued by the hospital
  

Now that most medical school graduates are probably entering residency programs with their own laptops and PDAs or smartphones, what are hospitals doing?

When my wife was in her residency at the University of Pennsylvania, they let her use a Dell laptop for 3 years. At the end of those 3 years, she had to either "buy" that laptop or she could return it to the department. We had enough computers around the house, so she simply returned her laptop.

So what are residency programs doing these days? It would seem silly to me if they're still issuing standalone PDAs to their residents who probably already have iPhones, BlackBerrys, Androids, etc. 

Smartphone cameras in the hospital

Some of the strangest medical photos have been captured using smartphones in the hospital. If you're a U.S. physician, you've probably joined Sermo and you know what I'm talking about. Now that so many health care professionals and students carry smartphones, we have cameras everywhere! So, if you're in the ICU and you see a very strange phenomenon, then you can capture that image immediately. Or, if you're in the ER (this is where some of the strangest photos come from), then you can quickly capture something using your smartphone.

Now, we can't ignore the issues surrounding patient confidentiality. Does your hospital have a policy about taking photos of patients? There are many reasons why you may want to photograph a rash or lesion. However, it's critical to ensure that you're respecting patient privacy and confidentiality at all times.

Android vs. iPhone: who will dominate the health care industry?

Right now, the Apple iPhone has a clear lead over any smartphone operating system in most hospitals and medical schools in the United States. There are a few medical schools and universities that are still lagging behind and they're relying on Windows Mobile and Palm OS, but the majority of these academic institutions recognize the value of the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. Medical students who are unable to afford a smartphone data plan or who do not wish to switch to the AT&T network, the iPod touch is a great alternative.

In 2010, we're going to see a large number of new Android smartphones appearing on all the major wireless carriers. Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and even AT&T will all offer Android smartphones. Android won't dominate the health care industry in 2010, but what about in 2 or 3 years? What will happen as we compare the Apple iPhone against Google's Android OS? We're bound to see more medical apps appearing for Android. We may see some unique ways that Google will leverage their resources and build the Android OS into an extremely robust OS for the health care industry. We've already seen Google incorporate voice-prompted turn-by-turn GPS navigation into the latest version of Android. Google certainly has the resources to leverage health care resources on the Internet to boost mobile functionality for health care professionals. Will the Google Android OS beat the Apple iPhone in a few years?

I've already been reading that attendees at CES are seeing more Android smartphones among attendees. Gadget-lovers tend to be early adopters, so that's understandable. However, medical professionals like the older generation of physicians are not classically considered early technology adopters. Compare that group to a younger generation of medical students and residents and you have a different mix with a large number of early technology adopters.

So what's going to happen by the end of the year? 2010 has only begun. I'm sure Apple has many different strategies to get their iPhone into more medical schools and hospitals. What's Google doing?