I have written extensively about how Polaris Wireless is a pioneer in the public safety arena. The benefits of our floor-level accuracy 3D location technology apply well beyond locating first responders and emergency callers. I am excited about recent developments our company has made in the healthcare industry, as highlighted in a new article by Polaris Wireless appearing in Fierce Healthcare.
3D Location Brings “Paging Doctor Smith” into the 21st Century highlights the advancements that 3D location enables in intra-hospital communications systems. The days of “paging Dr. Smith” over a loudspeaker, with no idea where in the hospital the doctor is, are rapidly being replaced with sophisticated applications that pinpoint doctors (and nurses, and other employees) with pinpoint precision via applications downloaded to a personal or hospital-issued wireless device. This is important for the new generation of skyscraper hospitals sprouting up in large cities on every continent. In researching the footprints that many of these hospitals are expanding into I was struck by the sheer magnitude of medical districts that resemble small, self-contained cities. This, more than anything, convinced me that the days of paging someone over a creaky public address system are truly over.
And that’s not all. Just as I examined the uses of 3D technology in locating people in a hospital environment, a future article will bring to light the growing need for hospitals to tag and track the location of very expensive medical devices and other equipment, a trend that is happening in many enterprises. The need for asset tracking is not new, but the method of applying 3D location technology is. Having a real-time view into expensive inventory not only saves the cost of equipment that may go missing, but also avoids the substantial personnel costs, in time wasted and money spent, of trying to physically track these assets. It goes without saying that missing medical devices can have a significant negative impact on patient care, especially in emergency situations where a specific device is required.
We are excited about the advancements in healthcare that our 3D location technology is enabling and look forward to sharing more developments in this area with you.
