Mobile Solutions Village on show

One of the highlights of the E-Health Insider Live ’09 exhibition will be the O2 and BlackBerry Mobile Solutions Village.

The two suppliers will showcase NHS customers who are using their applications and technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of community and hospital based staff.

Daniel Morrison-Gardiner, head of BlackBerry’s healthcare group, said: “We are working to build an eco-system of heath partners, many of whom will be with us at E-Health Insider Live ’09. This network has grown rapidly in the past 18 months, and will continue to grow.”

Partners already include Graphnet, Astute, PaperIQ and Health Anywhere, providing solutions that enable staff to remotely access to patient records or add data into an electronic medical record. In the case of Graphnet’s G-lite, this means mobile access to a shared summary medical record.

Health digital dictation specialist BigHand will also be at the exhibition to show how its technology can be delivered on a mobile device.

Morrison-Gardiner says the key features offered by BlackBerry are its enterprise security, interoperability, and the level of user access control it allows. If a handset is lost, it can be shut down remotely.

Steve Lawson, head of health marketing for mobile operator 02, says that health is a key market for the company. “We are looking at how we can help trusts achieve the efficiency savings they have been told they must deliver, and at the same time improve the quality of services they provide.”

Lawson says mobile solutions are particularly well suited to the needs of large community-based teams. “The less time you spend taking paper to the office the better because it frees more time to care for patients.”

Community midwives and physios are among the staff that O2 is working with. One of the main techniques being used is “job shadowing”, to better understand the barriers they currently face.

“What we often find is that in any particular trust there is no one single solution,” says Lawson. “While there is no magic wand we do have a lot of workflow tools and experience that can be relevant to healthcare professionals.”

The Mobile Solutions Village will be running a packed programme of free seminars over the two days of E-Health Insider Live ’09. More information can be found in the feature on the village on the E-Health Insider Live ’09 website.

The seminars are free to attend for all visitors to the exhibition and conference delegates, but you are advised to book your preferred sessions.