Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Apple and AirStrip Technologies
Solution - AirStrip OB
to a number of diseases instantly (www.epocrates.
com). It is capable of identifying pills of unknown
origin, by searching through a huge database of
description of pills (www.epocrates.com).
AirStrip Technologies provides software applica-
tions for portable mobile devices in the healthcare
industry. AirStrip, together with Apple, provides
obstetricians (OBs) with real-time wireless access
to the mother and the baby's historical waveform
data, on Apple iPhone 3G.(Zabre, 2008) In ad-
dition to that, OBs can also remotely access the
contraction patterns and fetal heart tracings from
the hospital's labor unit on their iPhone 3G.(Zabre,
2008) (Sarasohn-Kahn, 2010) The OB's mean-
ingful interaction with the hospital's labor unit
is increased when the patient can be remotely
monitored using the AirStrip OB application on
Apple iPhone.(Sarasohn-Kahn, 2010) The appli-
cation also eases usability by using the iPhone's
multitouch capabilities for quick enlargement
and scrolling through critical data.(Zabre, 2008)
It has truly “evolutionized the way obstetricians
conduct their practice”(Zabre, 2008)
Wireless ePrescription Solution
by Sprint and DrFirst
Sprint is a provider of integrated communication
services specifically to healthcare organizations
around the globe. DrFirst, a provider of services
and solutions on wireless devices to the healthcare
professionals, joined with Sprint to make Rcopia,
the wireless ePrescription application, available
to the healthcare market (PR Newswire, 2004).
This application is integrated with Sprint PCS
Vision Smart Devices (PR Newswire, 2004). The
wireless prescription management system assists
most of the care providers involved in the process
of prescription management including physicians,
practitioners and assistants (PR Newswire, 2004).
It handles the main functions of a prescription
system efficiently, namely creating, editing, saving
and electronic delivery of prescriptions through
Sprint Smart Devices (PR Newswire, 2004). This
system has greatly reduced medication errors
and has proved to save physician's time for other
important tasks (PR Newswire, 2004). More-
over, to avoid security breaches data is handled
by implementing proper security measures (PR
Newswire, 2004). According to the director of
healthcare marketing at Sprint Business Solutions,
patient care is greatly improved by using Sprint's
unique mobility solutions (PR Newswire, 2004).
Apple and Epocrates
Epocrates, Inc. offers mobile and web-based ap-
plications to support clinical decision making at
the point of care thereby providing qualitative
and secure patient care. It offers software ap-
plications deployed on various mobile devices
including Apple iPhone 3G (www.epocrates.
com). Doctors at Doylestown hospital make use
of certain medical reference applications on their
iPhone including Epocrates Essentials.(Apple,
n.d.) The process of accessing patient information,
explaining diseases, conveying lab test results and
providing medicinal information to the respective
patient can be done immediately from the iPhone
when the doctor visits the patient.(Apple, n.d.)
The Epocrates application also checks interac-
tions between different drugs given to the patient
simultaneously (Apple, n.d.), and can even suggest
alternate medication strategies (www.epocrates.
com). Moreover, it provides information related
4.5. Challenges to the Adoption of
Wireless Technology in Healthcare
Healthcare organizations have been quite reluctant
to adopt wireless solutions due to certain chal-
lenges/barriers that are associated with the use
of wireless technologies. When looking forward
to developing a useful and functional healthcare
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