Windows Phone Thoughts: The UCLA Medical Centre Demonstrates GCQ

"UCLA Medical Center is piloting a mobile, wireless patient information retrieval system that gives physicians instant access from throughout the hospital and around the world to real-time patient data via wireless Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and cellular smart phones. The Global Care Quest system, or GCQ, is intended to improve access to patient data, save health care workers time, trim the cost of care and tighten patient safety standards. At UCLA, GCQ integrates with digital medical records, bedside charting and laboratory results, to create the most comprehensive digital medical data storage and retrieval system of its kind. This state-of-the-art software solution advances existing technology by offering - for the first time - PDA and cellular smart phone access to real-time data from bedside ICU monitors, as well as X-ray and CT/MRI scan imaging studies. Physicians can access medical data throughout the medical center via the hospital's wireless network (Wi-Fi or 802.11b), and remotely, outside the hospital, through high-speed cellular network connections (1xRTT, EV-DO, EDGE)."



I've always supported the use of mobile devices in medicine. They are invaluable tools for accessing updated medical information whenever and wherever, and UCLA has gone one step further by showing the world just how capable their recent installation of the Global Care Quest (GCQ) system is. GCQ is designed to integrate with patient data and help deliver real-time records to wireless-enabled mobile devices. If you want a better idea of how it all works, then this video (RealMedia) is worth a watch (be on the lookout for the i-mate PDA2K, i-mate JAM, Samsung i730, and HP iPAQ hx4700). You'll come to appreciate just how useful Pocket PCs have become. :)

On a side note, there are other major hospitals in the United States and Australia that are currently considering GCQ installations.