Cisco Wireless In The Operating Theatre
Cisco Wireless In The Operating Theatre
July 20th, 2006: Cisco has announced a deal to provide Mater Health Services (MHS) with cutting edge technology for its hospitals.
Cisco will provide a touch screen application for tracking surgical instruments in MHS’ Brisbane facilities. The wireless solution will follow instruments from sterilisation into theatre and out again. The resulting reduction in cables will provide sterilisation benefits in addition to the tracking function. MHS has committed to implementing the solution across all of its 32 operating theatres.
Malcolm Thatcher, the chief information officer (CIO) at MHS Brisbane, says, “Choosing the right networking partner was absolutely critical to the future of our Smart Hospital vision, as the network is at the heart of what we want to achieve. Cisco was the only vendor which demonstrated a thorough understanding of the health sector and is making significant investments in the area”.
In addition to surgical benefits from the technology, visiting private practitioners will have access to MHS’ secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). This means that doctors can access patient files from their own laptop office systems. Prior to the wireless solution doctors were forced to copy patient records to their laptops before coming to the hospital. Now, they don’t need to leave the theatre if critical information is missing, resulting in less ‘open’ time for anesthetised patients and better patient outcomes claims MHS.
Cisco Queensland regional manager, John Winters, says, “The benefits which Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking can provide organisations such as MHS go well beyond email and Web searches towards true real-time interactivity with the information the care providers need. Cisco is delighted to be helping MHS improve productivity through the intelligent wireless Internet technologies”.