SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwire - February 25, 2008) - Cisco® (
NASDAQ:
CSCO) announced today that
it has enhanced its Mobility Healthcare portfolio with a set of integrated
solutions designed to rapidly improve patient care and staff productivity
for healthcare organizations around the globe. The integrated solutions
combine Cisco's Unified Wireless Network with new Cisco Compatible
Extensions and technology partner offerings in the areas of Mobile Care and
Location-Aware services, as well as to Cisco's Secure Wireless foundation,
to address the primary concerns of healthcare professionals today.
"Healthcare is, by nature, a mobile environment," said Ben Gibson, Cisco's
senior director of mobility solutions. "As medical professionals grapple
with the numerous, daily tasks involved in administering patient care, the
need for consistent and reliable mobility solutions becomes even more
crucial. Cisco strongly believes in addressing this need with a
comprehensive, solutions-based approach in contrast to a technology silo
view. Our mobility solutions are fully integrated with medical systems and
equipment, enabling these professionals to quickly respond, diagnose,
collaborate and treat patients at the point of care."
Cisco Mobility Healthcare Solutions Address Key Concerns of Healthcare
Providers
Combining Cisco's Unified Wireless Network with Cisco Secure Wireless and
healthcare-specific applications for mobile care and location-aware, Cisco
is addressing the requirements of healthcare organizations today, allowing
them to deploy a medical-grade network that delivers high reliability,
security, instant access to information and interactive collaboration. The
Cisco approach begins with the Cisco Unified Wireless Network, comprising
of Cisco Aironet access points, wireless LAN (WLAN) controllers, the Cisco
Wireless Control System, and the Cisco Wireless Location Appliance -- the
industry's first location solution that tracks thousands of devices from
the WLAN infrastructure. These components run over Cisco's Secure Wireless
foundation, which extends the network to the point of care without
compromising the integrity of business-critical data and applications, and
helps ensure compliance with industry regulations. Finally, through the
Cisco Compatible Extensions Program and its open application programming
interface (API), Cisco teams with partners to enable value-added services
in the areas of mobile care and location awareness that operate over the
secure network.
Orlando Regional Hospital Takes Mobile Care to the Next Level
Orlando Regional Healthcare is a prime example of how Cisco's healthcare
mobility solutions are revolutionizing the healthcare environment. For this
private, not-for-profit healthcare provider, which serves nearly two
million Central Florida residents and 4,500 international visitors
annually, a reliable mobility infrastructure is crucial to the
organization's daily operation. The organization maintains eight different
facilities, all of which are connected via its Cisco Unified Wireless
Network.
According to Orlando Regional's chief technology officer, Alex Veletsos,
the Cisco Unified Wireless Network serves physicians, nurses and
administrators at each of Orlando Regional's eight facilities while also
providing guest access to hospital visitors and private practice physicians
working at the hospitals. "Our wireless network truly impacts patient
care," said Veletsos. "All of our clinical information, electronic medical
records, and even our employee payroll, human resources and purchasing
information can be accessed via the wireless network. The network allows
our staff to become more efficient and productive, which results in
improvements across the board, and most importantly with the care of our
patients."
In addition to the wealth of mobility applications already deployed,
Orlando's Dr. P. Phillips Hospital is evaluating the Motion Computing® C5
Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) -- recently Cisco Compatible
Extensions-certified -- to allow physicians, nurses and administrators to
collaborate seamlessly, throughout the facility while on the go. The Motion
C5 MCAs enable these healthcare professionals to quickly capture and access
patient data at the point of care and automate important administrative
tasks such as scheduling medical exams. "The hope is that the combination
of our Cisco Unified Wireless Network and the new Motion C5 devices will
dramatically enhance clinical workflow and allow our staff to become even
more efficient," Veletsos said. The Motion C5 was designed specifically for
clinicians and was developed based on extensive research conducted by Intel
Corporation. This research included interviews with healthcare
professionals worldwide, including Orlando Regional's chief medical
information officer, Dr. Steve Margolis.
New Cisco Compatible Extensions and Technology Partners Deliver Tested and
Validated Mobility Solutions for Healthcare
Innovative mobile applications like those being used at Orlando Regional
Healthcare have resulted, in part, through the Cisco Compatible Extensions
Program, which enables the close integration of Cisco's Unified Wireless
Network with key third-party equipment and systems. Through this program,
Cisco and its partners can help ensure interoperability and the optimized
performance required to successfully deploy these solutions in the
demanding healthcare environment.
Four new Cisco Compatible Extensions-certified products were announced
today:
-- Motion™ C5 MCA: In addition to the capabilities that Orlando
Regional Healthcare is evaluating to access patient records and important
information at the point of care, the C5 also includes radio frequency
identification (RFID) and bar code-reading capabilities that are critical
for medication administration applications. Using the C5 MCA over the Cisco
Unified Wireless Network, nurses can quickly log in to the network using
RFID tag-enabled badges, and then scan the bar code on a patient's
medication package and the RFID tag in a patient's wristband, to compare
the two with a physician's latest orders in the facility's main clinical
database. Confirmations or denials are then sent back to the nurse in voice
commands and visually on the Motion C5 screen to help ensure that the right
medication is delivered to the patient. The device also enables instant
access to new, changed or canceled medication orders, and allows staff to
collect valuable data as they move through their daily routines.
-- Intermec: A new addition to Cisco's Secure Wireless foundation,
Intermec's CV30 is a small touch screen laptop for a rugged crash cart that
provides healthcare professionals with secure, reliable, instant access to
mission-critical scheduling, drug management and inventory information.
-- InnerWireless: InnerWireless has already certified PanGo™ products for
Cisco's Location-Aware Healthcare Solution through the Cisco Compatible
Extensions Program and has now integrated PanGo Vision with Cisco's Unified
Wireless IP 7921G phone display. Point-of-care visual access to the
location of mobile assets such as medical devices, as well as to patients
and caregivers, eliminates the need to return to the nurse stations.
-- Socket Mobile: Socket Mobile has gained Cisco Certification for the SoMo
650 Mobile Handheld Computer, and other products with its enhanced Socket
Wi-Fi Companion software. To deliver an integrated mobile care solution,
the SoMo 650 with a plug-in CompactFlash RFID reader-scan card helps
healthcare staff to correctly administer patient medication, quickly access
electronic medical records, and track medical equipment. It thereby helps
staff improve patient care, gain access to critical information, and manage
capital assets. Socket has designed an antibacterial version of the SoMo
650 handheld computer, specifically for the healthcare sector, which it
will be demonstrating at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems
Society (HIMSS) show this week in Orlando.
In addition to these key partners, Cisco also works with AeroScout for
location-aware applications. When used with Cisco's Unified Wireless
Network and Wireless Location Appliance, AeroScout's MobileView application
and tags now deliver temperature-monitoring capabilities which are critical
for proper medication storage and high-quality patient care.
Cisco's Mobility Solutions for Healthcare will be demonstrated this week at
the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 24-28, in
the Cisco booth 6251.
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