French-owned mobile phone network operator
Orange and
communications equipment maker
Alcatel-Lucent
are joining forces to address the healthcare markets in Europe and
emerging markets.
The increasing use of electronic patient record systems has
created a fast-growing market that has lured even the likes of
Google and Microsoft into it. For example, the UK's troubled
National Programme for IT, was billed at £12.7bn, but may cost
more.
Orange currently provides a range of healthcare applications
under the Connected Hospitals brand. These speed up access to
patient information at the hospital and provide internet access for
patients. Other applications for doctors' offices allow remote
follow-up, online appointment booking, and other services,
including remote patient monitoring.
Connected Hospitals was launched in 2007 to tie in with a French
government plan to modernise hospitals by 2012. It is an
interactive communications platform that leads to better activity
tracking and patient monitoring, the company said. Hospitals can
use IT equipment that communicates, such as mobile voice and data
terminals, interactive terminals, bracelets and patient protection
systems, to speed up information flows and improve healthcare
delivery.
Patients can use a multimedia terminal above their bed to make
phone calls, access the internet and various games, check e-mail,
watch videos on demand or television, and access practical
information about the hospital and the hospital's medical
staff.
Doctors can use the same terminals for secure access to
patients' medical records and to update them during a
consultation.
Other Connected Hospital features include a mobile nurse call
station, a monitoring bracelet to track patients' movements, a
range of tags for carts, stretchers or other equipment to track
their location, and a telephone answering service based on
interactive voice response servers.
Through its Bell Labs research arm, Alcatel-Lucent develops
networked healthcare solutions with partners such as the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Centre.
Orange and Alcatel-Lucent have a number of customers in common,
such as the Polyclinique de Picardie.