Hospitals install wireless to improve patient care

No more dodgy handwriting as doctors get PDAs and tablets

Mini-cameras that transmit from inside your body, and drug trolleys that will only dispense tablets to the right patients, are just two of the uses the health service is exploring for wireless technologies.

While many of the uses for wireless at the moment are quite prosaic - mostly to send information when stringing cable is too expensive or impractical - increasingly hospitals are looking at providing better services as well.

For example, The Royal Group of Hospitals in Belfast is using a wireless network to speed up prescriptions and track vital supplies. You can read the full case study here.

Ian Wakeford, director of Leicestershire & Rutland's Health Informatics Service, which has rolled out wireless in two hospitals, said there is a place for wireless in the health service: "It's got its place - it's not going to take over the world; it will only be about five per cent of our connections but if you do the security right it's as secure as plugging in a cable." Doctors use wireless laptops to take details from patients at the bedside, rather than taking notes and transcribing them later. Wakeford explained: "There is no point data-cabling up every single bed when a wireless access point at the nurses' station is just enough." And security is not an issue either anymore, he said: "I don't think it's any less secure than a standard PC."

Peter Kruger, senior analyst at analyst firm Wireless Healthcare, said wireless has considerable potential for the NHS.

For example, an orderly could use a wireless handheld to scan the identity tag on a patient's wrist. This data is then transmitted to the dispensing trolley, which will only allow one of its drawers to be opened - the one which holds that particular patient's drugs.

Kruger told silicon.com: "You can automate one of the key functions of the nurse which is dispensing the medicine. You reduce errors and make the process more efficient."

A similar system can be used by doctors carrying PDAs. "You can scan the tag on the patient's wrist and pull up patient records on the PDA which saves carrying around lots of paperwork."

However, it is still early days for these technologies - as well as even more exotic uses of wireless such as wireless digital cameras that can be swallowed by patients, and which then transmit images from inside the body to a recorder held on the patient's belt.

Kruger said: "There are just pilots going on - we are at a pretty early stage with this. A lot of these are fairly niche plays and they are down the list of [priorities] Connecting for Health."

But he predicted there will be increasing "patient pressure" on hospitals to adopt new technologies - especially as the more tech-savvy generations start to age.

He said: "As the generation that has been used to PC technology starts using the health service more they will think 'I do my shopping online but here you doctors are walking around with loads of paper so why don't you have this [hi-tech] stuff."