Wireless, Mobile Access to Medical Data Means the Doctor Is Always In
Doctors are expected to respond quickly and appropriately as their patients’ medical needs dictate. In an ideal world, physicians would have access to all medical data for a patient at their fingertips, but in the real world information must be retrieved from several different sources. Now, under an agreement with Sprint, a new technology developed at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will offer physicians mobile wireless access not only to patient records, including X-ray and CT images, but also to real-time data from ICU monitors, bedside charts, and even live video feeds.
The Integrated Clinical Information System Mobile (ICIS Mobile) solution will make this comprehensive medical information available on handheld devices and smart phones, even when doctors are away from the hospital.
Mobile access to existing clinical information systems through wireless networks is expected to improve the quality and safety of patient care, avoid errors, increase cost-effectiveness, and increase physician productivity and responsiveness. The system will make it simpler and faster to retrieve patient information, leaving more time to care for patients.
The digital data retrieval and storage system behind ICIS Mobile is already used in many departments of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, where it was invented and developed by Neal A. Martin, chief of neurosurgery, Valeriy I. Nenov, director of the Brain Intensive Monitoring and Modeling Laboratory (BIMML), and Farzad Buxey, a systems architect and research specialist working at BIMML. The team of inventors founded a privately held software company, Global Care Quest, Inc. to commercialize the technology through deals, including the agreement with Sprint.
AUTM Better World Report, 2007