It's 2 a.m. in a Fort Wayne, IN, hospital and a critical care nurse is concerned about one of her patients. He just doesn't look right, but she can't see anything that is completely out of range on his various monitors.
In most ICUs, the nurse would have to wonder whether to awaken the doctor on call or wait until the doctor makes his rounds at about 7 a.m. Fortunately, this hospital has an intensivist on duty, and she asks him to take a look at her patient.


Patient monitoring has come a long way, and companies supplying that medical technology are continuing their work to ensure that the level of patient care doesn't depend solely on the attention given to alarms, the clinician who happens to be in the department at the time of need or the ability of staff to correctly enter what feels like an endless stream of data into an electronic medical record system (EMR). Here are a few examples of how companies are creating new technology and integrating existing technology to improve enterprise wireless monitoring.

Three years ago Judy Sudmeier was talking on the telephone at work when, without warning, her heart stopped beating. Stopped dead. But, unlike hundreds of thousands of victims of
sudden cardiac arrest, Judy didn't die.
A registered nurse working in a clinical environment, Judy was fortunate enough to be


On any given day, a car accident victim will suffer a C-spine injury. A morbidly obese individual with a history of COPD may complain of chest pain, or an inner-city youth will come face to face with the wrong end of a handgun.
While seemingly unrelated, all three patients will arrive at their local ED and pose a distinct medical challenge that is independent of their particular injuries: a difficult airway.

Noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) has received increased attention in recent years as researchers and clinicians explore possible applications for the technology. Intubating patients and placing them on a ventilator is a well-established method for providing respiratory support, but it also carries with it an increased risk for infection or damage to the lungs.

It may sound like a good thing, but most people know that when an item claims to be “one size fits all,” it usually means “one size fits all… kind of.” Apparently, as in the clothing industry, this is equally true in the world of enterprise PACS.
“You can’t make everybody happy,” said Tim Masters, PACS manager for Continental Division HCA of Denver.
Four years ago, Masters was in charge of implementing GE’s Centricity PACS at Sky Ridge Medical Center, a then brand-new 136-bed hospital on the outskirts of Denver in Lone Tree, CO.

June 12, 2007 — GE Healthcare introduced its ViewPoint Vascular comprehensive ultrasound data management solution for vascular labs at the Society of Vascular Surgeons (SVS)/Society of Vascular Ultrasound (SVU) annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

June 12, 2007 - Accuray Inc. recently announced that Georgetown University Hospital’s second CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System has arrived at its Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C. and is expected to begin treating patients in July 2007.

Other hospitals celebrating a second CyberKnife system include Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, MD and Stanford University Hospital in Palo Alto, CA.

June 12, 2007 - Royal Philips Electronics announced that its iSite PACS are now available with optional communications tools from Primordial LLC, offering customers communications tools from Primordial LLC specially designed to foster process efficiencies and increase collaboration within radiology departments using iSite.

June 12, 2007- Siemens Medical Solutions USA and Partners HealthCare announced that they have finalized an agreement in which the two organizations will collaborate to develop innovative Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure in healthcare IT.

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