Mobile clinical assistant

To improve patient care and help to reduce medical errors, Panasonic has launched its first Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) — the Toughbook H1. The Toughbook H1 provides the healthcare profession with a full-featured mobile device that can withstand the rigours of the fast-paced healthcare environment, while offering improvements in workflow productivity, quality and mobility, to achieve better outcomes for patients.

The H1 has been designed in response to the needs of healthcare professionals, with Panasonic gaining feedback from clinicians in all elements of the research and development. Built from the ground up, the fully-rugged H1 has been designed to address the computing challenges that face the medical profession. MCAs allow healthcare professionals to access and update medical records and critical information at the patient’s bedside. The benefit of an MCA is improved staff productivity, as valuable time with the patient is maximised, removing the need to search through paper records, while easy access to critical information means errors can be reduced.

The MCA is a lightweight, ergonomic and rugged design meaning it will survive the knocks, bumps and drops that often occur in a busy medical environment. With a fanless design and no open ports, it can be safely sanitised with hospital-grade disinfectant, reducing the spread of infection. Long battery life and dual hot-swappable batteries means the H1 is always working, so healthcare professionals will have continuous access to critical information.

When using the H1 MCA, a nurse or clinician can log on via the contactless smart card reader or fingerprint reader to ensure access to confidential patient records is secure at all times. An integrated RFID reader and bar code scanner can allow fast, accurate access to the patient’s full medical records, simply by scanning a patient’s bar code at their bedside, or on their wrist. This can help to reduce medication administration errors and deliver faster, safer patient care. An integrated 2.0 MP auto-focus camera with dual LED lights allows users to capture images to add to a patient’s file. Photos of wounds or symptoms can then be sent for further diagnosis to other professionals or monitored during healing and recovery. The 10.4" XGA sunlight viewable LCD screen is clear and easy to see. Features include: Genuine Windows Vista, Intel Atom processor (1.86 GHz), 1 GB standard RAM, 80 GB 1.8 in shock-mounted hard drive and 10.4" XGA sunlight-viewable LCD. It is fully rugged with: MIL STD-810F tested and IP54 compliant, 90 cm drop tested, magnesium alloy chassis, alcohol-wipe resistant chassis, sealed all-weather design and rain, spill, dust and vibration resistant. It also has the following specs: Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100 802.11a/b/g/draft-n, Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR, integrated docking connector, and optional integrated accessories: 3G wireless WAN, GPS and 2D bar code reader.