At the World of Health IT annual congress, Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG; AEX: PHI) today will unveil CliniScape, its first mobile clinical assistant (MCA). The medical-grade, easy-to-clean handheld device brings a wide range of features together into a groundbreaking mobile point of care solution defined by Philips, Intel and other industry partners. These include a 10.4" pen-touchscreen, RFID and barcode scanning, and a digital camera. CliniScape completes the missing link in hospital technology, allowing nurses and doctors to document a patient's condition instantly, reducing their workload and increasing the quality of bedside care.
"Healthcare providers work in fast-paced, high-stress conditions. They often need to make critical decisions on the move with nothing more than a clipboard and their own two feet to help them find relevant clinical data," said Franco Martegani, CEO, Philips FIMI, a division of Philips Medical Systems. "With the mobile clinical assistant, doctors and nurses can take more informed decisions, more quickly and with less risk of avoidable errors, whilst avoiding the drawbacks of conventional handheld devices, such as short battery life, complex user interfaces, the risk of spreading infection or the need to carry a cumbersome barcode reader or digital camera."
Designed as a semi-sealed device without any I/O ports except for one USB slot behind a protective cover, the MCA can easily be wiped clean with disinfectant to reduce the spread of infection. The MCA category was defined by Intels Digital Health Group with input from nurses and physicians worldwide and has the support of a number of leading healthcare EMR vendors who have optimized their point of care software to take full advantage of the integrated features delivered by the MCA.
The device's durable design makes it suitable to withstand knocks, drops and the general daily activities within the hospital. At less than 1.6kg, the lightweight device is designed to minimize fatigue when being held flat thanks to a hand grip on the back of the unit. The grab and go docking unit comes with a built-in battery charger, 3 USB ports and one Ethernet jack to allow the MCA to be used as a desktop device when docked.
Available in early Spring 2008, the CliniScape MCA is based on a 1.2 GHz Intel® Core Solo Processor with a 60 GB hard-disk drive, 1 GB SDRAM, WLAN 802.11 b/g/n, Windows XP Tablet PC edition (Vista planned) and an easy to read 10.4inch XGA touch-screen with digitizer. The device integrates a number of technology features together on a single platform, including:
- RFID reader for single swap user-authentication and real-time verification of patients, medication, blood containers and other clinical specimens
- Optional built-in barcode reader to support bar-code based identification protocols
- Bluetooth for cordless connection of devices such as a heartbeat or blood-pressure sensor, telephone headset or dictation microphone
- 2 Mpixel camera for real-time capture of digital pictures of patient wounds
- Medical-grade compliance to allow its use in clinical areas where traditional laptops or tablet PCs are not allowed
The CliniScape MCA also acts as an ideal mobile point of care solution for accessing Philips' wide range of clinical applications, such as the IntelliVue Clinical Information Portfolio (ICIP) and iSite PACS, the leading enterprise-wide medical image and information management system.
At the World of Health IT annual congress, Philips will also be demonstrating how its recent acquisition of XIMIS Inc. will strengthen its RIS offering. In addition, the company will be exhibiting its industrial-grade speech recognition system, SpeechMagic, a technology that is integrated into the XIMIS RIS and can be used with the MCA.
Philips will also be unveiling a new concept study looking at how speech can be automatically translated into structured data. The study, in partnership with Map of Medicine and Health Language Ltd, will look at how such technology can capture a wealth of decision-support information that can then be made available to the care provider at the point of care. Klaus Stanglmayr, Strategic Product Marketing Manager, Philips Speech Recognition Systems, will hold a tutorial on the study at World of Healthcare IT on Wednesday 24th October, in Theater 425 at 12.45 13.30.
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a global leader in healthcare, lighting and consumer lifestyle, delivering products, services and solutions through the brand promise of sense and simplicity. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 128,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of USD 34 billion (EUR 27 billion) in 2006, the company is a market leader in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring systems, energy efficient lighting solutions, personal care and home appliances, as well as consumer electronics. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.