Going Wireless

The market for wireless and mobile phone-based healthcare platforms is set to grow rapidly as health providers seek ways to drive down costs.

According to a report published in March by Cambridge UK-based research company Wireless Healthcare, mobile communications platforms provide simple means of connecting diagnostic medical devices to electronic medical records systems and advanced Health 2.0-based services being developed by companies such as Google and Revolution Health.

The report, “Wireless eHealth Platforms” singles out two main types of platforms; those - such as BlueAid - being built from the ground up as healthcare communications platforms, and conventional ecommerce platforms – such as IBM’s WebSphere - that can be customized to support ehealth applications.

It has been said that while banks and airlines have managed to radically reduce costs by deploying technology that lets customers carry out transactions online, healthcare providers have yet to realize similar savings by “providing online heart monitoring and blood glucose checks”.

Undeniably, there is an important role for platforms that are flexible enough to allow medical devices that use a range of wireless standards, such as Bluetooth, 802.11 or ZigBee, to communicate with a mobile phone or wireless healthcare hub. Wireless technologies can to help reduce error, improve efficiency, increase productivity and even provide real-time data on your desktop.

But despite the benefits of wireless technologies in the pharmaceutical industry, the rate of take-up would likely depend on reliability and security. Many will ask questions on how wireless technology can integrate seamlessly into their current systems and if it is going to cost the company. These will have to be answered with completed projects and client studies from the vendors when they are ready to present their case.