Melbourne hospital trails wireless innovations

Jan 6, 2005: The Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne has incorporated handheld computers and a new wireless networking infrastructure to allow doctors, nurses and other caregivers to locate patient history reports, x-rays and pathology results at the bedside.

The project is called mWard and was developed by the Centre for Health Services and Operations Management at Monash University, which is also based in Melbourne. The aim of the project is to speed up the flow of patient information, increase accuracy.

In addition, it is hoped that this project will eliminate the errors and double handling that happens when hard copies of information are lost or are hard to find.

Dr. Liza Heslop, the director for CHSOM, said that the trial includes Symbol Technologies wireless handheld devices that enable doctors and nurses to obtain pathology and patient history reports, and NEC tablet PCs that receive and display larger reports such as X-Rays - all at the patient's bedside.

"This represents a huge change in the healthcare industry, where patient information usually consists of handwritten notes and hard copy reports stored in different places. By making a more comprehensive array of information more readily accessible where it is most needed, we can improve patients' hospital experiences dramatically."

It is hoped that by allowing doctors, nurses and carers to have access to correct, up-to-date information, this will allow hospitals to work more efficiently and will reduce the potential for mistakes being made, such as patients being given the wrong treatments.

Heslop added: "Health workers spend a significant amount of time and effort seeking information to make the next key decision about a patient's treatment. We believe this technology will allow the hospital to run more efficiently, enabling us to treat more patients.

"Instead of spending hours waiting to access information, hospital staff will be able to treat and discharge patients quickly and accurately."

In the future, the hospital hopes to even add wireless phones and wireless hotspots so that information can be shared more conveniently too.

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