'Star Trek' communicators free up doctors' time

Julian Goldsmith, silicon.com | July 30, 2008 4:55 AM PDT

Summary

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has saved the equivalent of 4,000 emergency department staff hours per year with an internal Star Trek-style wireless voice communicator.
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has saved the equivalent of 4,000 emergency department staff hours per year with an internal Star Trek-style wireless voice communicator.

The network, which is supplied by Vocera and is accessed by a pendant-like device, has been installed at the Royal Victoria Hospital Emergency Department in December 2007.

The department's doctors, nurses, ward clerks, bed managers and medical secretaries all use the devices to contact other staff by stating their name or function. As a result, medical professionals at the hospital are spending less time trying to find a phone line or leaving the premises to call up their peers.

In a study of the roll out conducted by Kinetic Consulting, 40 per cent of doctors and 60 per cent of nurses reported fewer interruptions while providing care for patients.

In a statement, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust said: "This study has allowed us to evaluate where we need to develop our communications. The advantage for us is having a system in place to continue the progression and patients are seeing better service as a result. Through the use of technology our staff can do their jobs more efficiently."

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RE: 'Star Trek' communicators free up doctors' time
joed1955 4th Aug 2008
I also use vocera at my hospital. Using it comes down to good education on how to use it right.
It is able to learn your speech pattern.
It can also be used as a walkie talkie that will connect you directly to your group.
I think it is great to use.
Beam me up!!
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Smart
mford66215 30th Jul 2008
and simple, both factors that contribute to success.
Relying on 802.11(b/g) for life and death conversations has significant risks due to the non-regulated RF spectrum it uses and significant interference threats from things as trivial as wireless headsets.
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Did I miss Something?
bobiroc 30th Jul 2008
I didn't see anywhere in that article that said it was using 802.11b/g wireless. Maybe it is a different frequency other than 2.4Ghz that will less likely interfere with other common wireless devices. NOt every wireless device uses 8.02.11 a/b/g/n wireless. Some have their own frequency or a much less common frequency to minimize interference.
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Its WiFi, Vocera only do WiFi
alistair_GB 30th Jul 2008
Vocera only make devices for 802.11 g/b WiFi and it is running on a Trapeze backbone. It won a load of awards last year and the year before. They have done some really cool things with it as well, I have seen the installation.
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I stand corrected
bobiroc 30th Jul 2008
I just didn't want to assume that it used 802.11b/g but I guess I could have done a little googling before I posted a comment. If properly implemented a 802.11 b/g or n network can operate very well with minimal interference. Also hospitals are pretty strict on bringing in outside electronics (at least they are in my experience) and should have minimal trouble I would think. All in all I think this is good for them.
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I use Vocera at the hospital I work at. On paper it looks
like the greatest thing ever! But when you start using it
you quickly realize that it has many problems. For one
thing it has very poor reception, in most places in the
hospital it didn't work including the elevators where I
found myself many times missing a call. Also the voice
recognition is horrible! Many times I would have to repeat
myself three to four times and sometimes still not work. I
was not impressed with the product and many times I
would find myself still using a phone anyway. If they
improved the technology this would really be a great time
saver.
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I use this and it's great!
doodlius 4th Aug 2008
It saves me lots of time whenever I want to tell Geordi to run a level 3 diagnostic on the phase inverter coils.
I also use vocera at my hospital. Using it comes down to good education on how to use it right.
It is able to learn your speech pattern.
It can also be used as a walkie talkie that will connect you directly to your group.
I think it is great to use.
Beam me up!!

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