Sunday, August 11, 2002
Are they lost, nowhere to be found?
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "NEWS" @ 10:11 AM
Where have all the Pocket PCs gone? Hundreds of thousands sold. Where are they now? What are they all doing? I know where many Pocket PCs have gone! To hospitals, medical centers and institutes! Pocket PCs in the healthcare are used to manage patient records, monitor health status of patients, keep patients in touch with doctors and nurses, and so on. The latest solution I came across was hospital supply chain.
The article "Hospital's mobile revolution starts with supply chain" (thanks to Robert Anderson for the link) tells us about some hospitals in Bradford, England. A recenly implemented mobile application enables hospital staff to order supplies wherever they are in the hospital, a useful scenario that minimizes paper work and minimizes risk of getting short on vital supplies. "Wander" is what the system is called and the mobile application connects to .NET servers using Web Services. According to the system integrator and developer KPMG, the hospitals will continue to extend back-office functions to Pocket PCs: "Wander currently covers two-thirds of the supply chain function," said Ben Jones, head of development for design and engineering at KPMG. "The next step is to improve the back-office integration, including patient support, and then it will be extended to cover clinical applications. ... We believe there are about 100 to 250 people in the average hospital who could use this kind of technology," said Howe, and he believes there are similar environments outside the health sector."
The system architecture is based on Microsoft .NET and the article outlines in more detail what products are used in this solution. An interesting remark concerning the choice of Pocket PCs was made: "Because the system uses a high level of intelligence in the handheld device, Pocket PC was the main contender for delivering the application. Tablet PCs were also considered, but were not mature enough, said Jones. "With Web services, the actual devices become irrelevant," said Jones. "We settled on the Pocket PC because we wanted to focus on usability."
The article "Hospital's mobile revolution starts with supply chain" (thanks to Robert Anderson for the link) tells us about some hospitals in Bradford, England. A recenly implemented mobile application enables hospital staff to order supplies wherever they are in the hospital, a useful scenario that minimizes paper work and minimizes risk of getting short on vital supplies. "Wander" is what the system is called and the mobile application connects to .NET servers using Web Services. According to the system integrator and developer KPMG, the hospitals will continue to extend back-office functions to Pocket PCs: "Wander currently covers two-thirds of the supply chain function," said Ben Jones, head of development for design and engineering at KPMG. "The next step is to improve the back-office integration, including patient support, and then it will be extended to cover clinical applications. ... We believe there are about 100 to 250 people in the average hospital who could use this kind of technology," said Howe, and he believes there are similar environments outside the health sector."
The system architecture is based on Microsoft .NET and the article outlines in more detail what products are used in this solution. An interesting remark concerning the choice of Pocket PCs was made: "Because the system uses a high level of intelligence in the handheld device, Pocket PC was the main contender for delivering the application. Tablet PCs were also considered, but were not mature enough, said Jones. "With Web services, the actual devices become irrelevant," said Jones. "We settled on the Pocket PC because we wanted to focus on usability."
