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- Emerging Technologies
MOBILE AND WIRELESS COMPUTING
Healthcare workers are increasingly become mobile, with a
number of them now going into the community to do some work. However there is
the danger of them losing the services that were available to them through the
use of their desktop Personal Computers (PCs).
Mobile computing devices such as laptops, notebooks, tablets
and Personal Device Assistants (PDAs) provide users with some of that were
previously only available on the desktop PC. Early mobile devices were bulky
and clumsy, and had low computing and battery power and thus had low appeal
amongst computer users. However of late, the decrease in size and increase in
the computing and battery power of mobile devices has led to an increase in
their use to provide mobile computing solutions.
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Wireless technology provides mobile computers users with a
means of accessing and transmitting data to and from a central collection
point. Wireless technology standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth allow
healthcare organisations to set up wireless networks so that mobile computing
devices can not only connect to these networks for data transmission but also
to one another. These organisations are now beginning to apply mobile computing
solutions to various aspects of healthcare services such as point-of-care
collection of information, care assessments, orders and electronic
prescriptions.
One of the advantages organisations can enjoy from deployment
of mobile computing solutions include the “anytime and anywhere” access. This
is a phrase that has been coined by the champions of wireless technology. This
basically describes the situation that allows users to connect to wireless
networks to access data from almost any point and at anytime of the day they
choose to. This not only addresses the issue of immediacy in accessing data but
also increases the flexibility in the manner in which a healthcare professional
can work.
However before going out to acquire mobile computing
solutions, there are some factors healthcare organisations should consider:
Consider the need for real-time access
While an ideal situation would be to
have an “always connected” mode, in terms of being connected to the network, it
can be expensive. Some healthcare workers out in the community need to access
and send back data almost on a constant basis, some only need to so
intermittently, while others only need to access the upload and download data
to and from the central database at the end of the working day.
It is important to suit mobile
applications to the needs of the health worker as this can increase the battery
life of mobile devices, control the amount of traffic that connects to the
central database and within the network inside, and most importantly control
costs.
Always consider security
At all stages of acquiring mobile
computing solutions, security of the wireless network and the data being
transmitted through the network as well as that available on the mobile
computing devices should always be a priority from the planning stages right
through to the deployment and maintenance.
All users connecting to the central
databases should be successfully and correctly authenticated, communications
between the mobile devices and the database should be encrypted and the data
located on the devices themselves should either be password protected and/or
encrypted.
Increasing sophistication of mobile
computing means that they are becoming susceptible to some of the kind of
viruses and malicious code attacks that are common to desktop PCs. It is
important to take this into consideration and seek adequate anti-virus and code
attack solutions.
It is also import to ensure that
anyone logging onto to the wireless network and not just connecting to the
central database is probably authenticate as anyone with a device with a
wireless port can gain access to unsecured data being transmitted through the
network.
Think big, start small
It is better to start off with small
pilot projects to examine the effects mobile computers would have on the
productivity and efficiency of the healthcare workers for whom the solution is
targeted at. The projects can later be scaled up, always leaving room for an
increase in the number of users.
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