Philips joins Intel to develop wireless, handheld ‘Mobile Clinical Assistant’ to help hospitals improve bedside care

Philips joins Intel to develop wireless, handheld ‘Mobile Clinical Assistant’ to help hospitals improve bedside care

Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today announced its plan to design, manufacture and ship a Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) to enable nurses and physicians to improve bedside patient care by using an integrated, wireless device to connect to patient information stored in electronic medical records. The MCA is a new category of mobile point-of-care devices that was designed with input from clinicians and through clinical workflow studies, interviews and ethnography research conducted by Intel Corporation. Concept designs of the Philips MCA are showcased at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2007 meeting, February 26 – March 1 in New Orleans and are planned for production in the fourth quarter of this year.

Equipped to increase quality of care: The Philips MCA brings a number of technology features together into a single platform, including an easy to read 10.4 inch XGA touch-screen, RFID and barcode scanning, Bluetooth, wireless LAN connectivity and a digital camera. The portable, always connected device is designed to require minimal training and provides significant benefits to the clinical users, helping to reduce medication errors, positively identify staff and patients, fill out charts, capture vital signs, write up reports and validate blood transfusions as well as the ability to closely monitor the healing of wounds.

Designed by clinicians for clinicians: “Nurses are already busy enough today and every little step you can save is very important to them,” said Franco Martegani, CEO of Philips FIMI – a global provider of medical displays and mobile point-of-care terminals. The MCA embodies our brand promise—Sense and Simplicity. It marries technology with usability and is designed around the way healthcare professionals are working when visiting patients, giving it the potential to provide more real-time care for a better patient experience.”

The overall concept of the MCA has been defined by studying different usage models, with direct input from clinical staff. Individual components in the Philips MCA have been optimally tuned to each other to ensure the highest level of usability and portability. The MCA is made of lightweight material and provides an ergonomic fit for both right- and left-hand users. The device is also being designed to minimize fatigue while holding it flat thanks to a ground-breaking hand grip on the back of the unit, and features intuitive function controls, LED indicators and other smart interfaces that are suitable for use in many different fast-paced clinical situations.

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