Saturday, August 02, 2008

Wireless VoIP Goes To Hospital In Belfast, And Gets A Clean Bill Of Health

A few decades ago Star Trek may have shown us some of the gadgets we may see in our time. The lapel communicator that one touch to communicate has come to us in a form of nurse's badge.! Following statement is not from Star Trek but a quote from a staff nurse at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT).
"The patient I was accompanying for a CT scan suddenly became very ill. I was immediately able to call the emergency department for backup from my Badge.”

The just published results of a study into the use of WiFi VoIP at a Belfast hospital show WiFi VoIP Communication to be a healthy success. The study was carried out by Kinetic Consulting and took place at the Royal Victoria Hospital Emergency Department and used technology created by Vocera Communications System.

The Vocera Communications System consists of two main components: the Vocera System Software and the Vocera Communications Badge. The System Software consists of the call manager, user manager, and connection manager programs, as well as the Nuance speech recognition software and various databases.

According to the news released, Vocera Communications Badge B2000 is a wearable device weighing less than two ounces. It enables instant two-way voice conversation. Features of the badge include:

  • Voice controls, enabling users to answer incoming calls hands-free

  • Intelligent system software allowing staff to call associates by name, function or group with no need to remember numbers

  • Supporting group communications with conference calling, broadcast messaging and voice mail

  • PBX integration enabling users to make and receive internal calls from their Badges.
Various members of staff, including doctors and nurses, had this device hanging round their neck that can be used to communicate with someone else, simply by pushing a button and stating their name or role.

The study is summarised here.

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