Mobile Healthcare Anywhere

Michael Restuccia, vice president and CIO of the Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania Health System, forecasts that for data entry to be possible on a mobile device, speech recognition will have to fill the void of touchpad difficulties. Longhurst adds that natural language processing could likely be used, in situations in which servers have been programmed to recognize systematized terminologies to make voice recognition more accurate. Turisco, however, finds voice recognition to be problematic for the mobile environment, which can be accompanied by lots of peripheral noise. Babitch also finds the prospect dubious, as Dragon (Nuance, Burlington, Mass.) software requires hefty processing, which may be too taxing for mobile devices. Spyglass Consulting's Malkary finds a good in between technology to be Bluetooth-enabled keyboards to make data entry on a tablet easier.

DEVICE DEPLOYMENT, SECURITY

As Healthcare Informatics' August 2010 cover story noted, hospitals have been taking many different approaches to secure mobile devices on their networks, and most have been taking a technologically agnostic approach to which devices they are now supporting. Turisco and Longhurst both agree that the safest way to support mobile computing is to implement a Web-based platform. “For physicians, most of the solutions are Internet access, so nothing lives on the device except for the browser,” Turisco says.

Longhurst adds that a more sustainable way to plan for mobile is to not create specific apps for mobile devices, but create “a Web platform that can support all of those, so it's broader and more sustainable and doesn't store data on the end user's device.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Restuccia says that many organizations, including his, are moving to a more tethered approach that provides a reliable connection to the hospital's clinical information systems. He is putting Lenovo (Morrisville, N.C.) workstations in every exam room, as there is too much competition for wireless connection, including huge image files passing through the system, as well as hospital construction. “[In our] experience the adoption of new technology and applications is in part driven by the reliability and the consistency of that connection to the system,” Restuccia says. “And in the hospitals there are too many potential conflicts that could impede that wireless connection.” To that point, Malkary recommends that the leaders of facilities that go down the wireless path should do a comprehensive survey to understand the radio frequency propagation in the building.

Turisco, though, believes that wireless is eventually going to win out. Babitch agrees, adding, “It is a good strategy for physicians to take something they can use in the office, car, and hospital, something that he can take back and forth, and it helps relieve some of the budgetary restraints.”

TABLET COMPETITION SEEN

The mobile future seems very bright, with the current explosion of tablets in the market. In fact, says Longhurst, “I think we're going to see a lot more competition at the tablet level. The iPad was relatively groundbreaking when it entered the market, but it's a very expensive model.” Turisco believes the Samsung tablets will be the next form factor to watch, especially with a new, more tech-savvy generation of young doctors graduating from medical schools like Harvard and Stanford that have been using tablets in their programs.

Healthcare Informatics 2011 March;28(3):34-36