iTnews takes a look at the new face of hospital bedside manner.
on Sep 13 2011 6:00AM
A total of 660 touch-screen systems are to be installed at Mater Health's seven hospitals. Each system costs between $2000 and $2500 and is expected to provide patients with internet access and entertainment.
Some 200 of the devices have been rolled out to date. They were custom-built and run on an embedded Windows XP platform.
The devices will ultimately allow clinicians to access back-end clinical applications using Citrix virtual desktop technology.
The hospital group has undertaken a wider Citrix virtualisation deployment and desktop replacement program to improve speed and convenience.
Clinicians would use a RFID-capable smartcard to authenticate into the virtualised application stack.
The patient entertainment units could ultimately provide access to a Verdi electronic medical system that also forms part of the maternity and newborn aspects of the Federal Government's personally controlled electronic health record initiative.
Mater’s IT services director Peter Nomikos said virtualisation would primarily be used to educate and inform the patient of their diagnosis and ongoing care, rather than replacing the clipboard at the end of the bed.
The hospital installed a Siemens CT scanner in 2008 that enables doctors to scan and then recreate three-dimensional reconstructions of a patient's brain or heart for diagnosis.
Here, a patient is scanned for progress on their cerebral aneurysm after having undergone surgery to contain the blood loss.
The hospital is networked at gigabit speeds, allowing files from the CT scanning room to whizz around the hospital.
The files themselves are stored at one of two on-site data centres currently undergoing revamps. Nimokos said the hospital was currently out to tender and expected to award a winner shortly. The centres would remain on-site but the storage requirements of the hospital were ever-expanding.
A total of 660 touch-screen systems are to be installed at Mater Health's seven hospitals. Each system costs between $2000 and $2500 and is expected to provide patients with internet access and entertainment.