The healthcare environment can benefit greatly from the thoughtful application of technology to help improve operations and outcomes. HP offers a range of solutions designed to help healthcare professionals in their work and also to safeguard the safety of staff and patients.
Peter Wilkinson, vendor executive at Aptronics, a division of iOCO, discusses the challenges and opportunities in the healthcare industry.
What are some of the challenges that the healthcare sector faces, and why does it need a special range of products and solutions?
Healthcare practitioners work with immune- and health-compromised people all day, so the environment has to be scrupulously clean and sanitised – and this includes the IT equipment.
They are also entrusted with intensely personal information, and they have a duty of care to ensure that this data remains secure at all times. This means they need systems that ensure the highest levels of privacy and security.
In every country in the world, there are too few healthcare professionals, so systems that help to improve workflow and operational efficiency are vital.
What is the HP solution in this area?
HP has developed HP Healthcare Editions specifically for the healthcare industry and has reimagined healthcare technology to put the doctor, clinician and patient needs before anything else.
The purpose-built healthcare portfolio is designed with clinicians in mind to streamline patient care and optimise clinical workflows.
What is Aptronic’s offering?
Aptronics is one of South Africa’s leading service and solution providers. It offers the range of HP Healthcare Editions solutions to customers ranging from doctors’ rooms to national hospital chains.
A Level One broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) contributor, Aptronics offers high-quality services, backed up by the leading vendor in the field.
Aptronics prides itself on building long-term, value-added relationships with customers, and is a multi-award winning HP partner.
What sets HP Healthcare Editions apart?
The adoption of this technology can only be a positive for the medical industry, with security, quality assurance and client experience just a few of the positives. Meanwhile, the reduced risk due to built-in safety helps to close the gap between doctor and patient.
The products are designed specifically to work with leading hospital germicidal wipes, so they present a much lower risk of infection. And they are EMI compliant so they can be used in patient rooms and nurses’ stations.
The HP Healthcare Edition devices are all smart, with simplified logins and authentication.
HP Healthcare Edition PCs have authentication and collaboration tools that help to reduce the total cost of ownership and dependence on tethered devices with powerful optional integrated features.
Assisting doctors with RFID secure authentication and single sign-on support for Imprivata and Healthcast reduces risk and login burnout, also auto securing the device should the practitioner move away.
More and more doctors are interacting with colleagues, and the integrated use of Vidyo can save time and interaction with patient needs.
The FIPS-201 standard ensures the correct patient is getting the correct medication and they are an actual person and not “borrowed” from a pharmacist, the embedded fingerprint reader meets all these requirements.
The technology is secured for healthcare. Patient data security and supporting HIPAA requirements are integral to the sector, and practioners know they can secure their data at the highest level with HP Healthcare Edition devices.
Each device has built-in BIOS-level protection and robust, optional multi-factor authentication features.
HP Healthcare Edition HC241p and HC271p displays help protect patient confidentiality with embedded fixed privacy filters that limit the field of view to ±30° off axis.
The healthcare industry is under pressure to perform more efficiently. How can the HP solution enable this?
HP Healthcare Edition enhances the connection between care providers and patients while optimising clinical workflows.
The solution lets practitioners improve workflows wherever the point of care may be with collaborative, personalised, and flexible technology built for the way providers work.
Importantly, it delivers better care everywhere, simplified secure communication, collaboration, and access to medical care, and the capture of data at the point of care, wherever that may be.
We also offer a range of clinical and diagnostic displays.
HP’s colour calibrated clinical review displays deliver consistent views of medical images and more complete, at-a-glance views of clinical data. In addition, DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) certification means that touchscreens are designed to work with latex gloves.
A sterile environment is vital in healthcare, so a Sanitation Log lets users schedule reminders for cleaning, and collate a cleaning log file for compliance purposes.
The embedded Easy Clean application temporarily locks all input devices during cleaning to avoid interference or unintentional input.
The solutions you’ve spoken about are great for making the life of the healthcare practitioner easier. What about the patient’s experience?
Innovative, user friendly, HP patient engagement and education solutions help to inform and motivate patients every step of the way, giving them more control over their inpatient resources and experience.
In addition, by providing patient education tools that help build patients’ comprehension and confidence levels, practitioners can begin to address the “no show” rate, improve patient compliance, and support shared decision-making.
Across the continuum of care, HP has introduced technologies that transform experiences, evoke behavior change, and promote wellness and disease management.
Perhaps the most important issue is to address the literacy barrier. With 360 degrees of versatility across five modes and comprehensive security, the thin and light HP EliteBook x360 with Patient Nexus digital 3D anatomical models is the perfect PC for highly mobile providers seeking improved ways of delivering health education.
We believe they can also enhance patient healing experiences and wellbeing by deploying the HP Mixed Reality Headset Professional Edition, a virtual reality headset of superb product engineering, high resolution, light-weight comfort and mobile design.
There’s no doubt that security is critical in the healthcare environment. What does HP bring to the party in terms of security?
HP delivers the world’s most secure PCs, with hardware-enforced resilience.
HP Elite PC features include: the HP Privacy Camera that lets users share only what they want; HP Multi-factor Authenticate; HP Sure View Gen3; HP Sure Sense, HP Sure Client; HP Endpoint Security Controller; HP SureStart; HP Sure Run; and HP Sure Recover.
Incorporating intelligent threat defense, HP Elite PCs can help users stay one step ahead of threats, hacks, and attacks with best in class intelligence.
HP Sure Sense uses deep learning and neural networks to identify behavioral traits; instinctively recognising and neutralising never-before-seen malware.
Strengthen your security position, stay ahead of attacks, and prevent negative impact on your business with Specialised Service Experts, who provide proactive security management by monitoring reports, analysing threats, and helping customers to plan.
With HP Device as a Service (DaaS) Proactive Security, customers can transform endpoints from your biggest risk to your best defense. And they can streamline the management of security, hardware, and BIOS settings for your fleet with the HP Manageability Integration Kit.
What are some of the products that make up the HP Healthcare Editions portfolio?
The HP EliteOne 800 G5 23,8-inch Healthcare Edition AiO is easily sanitisable and enhanced with robust security and collaboration features and optional, integrated authentication tools.
The HP EliteBook 840 G6 Healthcare Edition Notebook is infrastrucuture-ready, can be sanitized, and minimizes TCO with optional, built-in telemedicine and authentication.
The HP Healthcare Edition HC241, HC241p, HC271, and HC271p are built for easy, repeatable sanitization after every patient engagement, and the HC241p and HC271p add fixed privacy filters.
The HP Healthcare Edition HC270cr is built for easy, repeatable sanitization, it’s DICOM Part 14 compliant for viewing medical images, and it’s enhanced with single-sign-on authentication support and collaboration tools for telemedicine.
HP also offers an HP USB Keyboard and Mouse Healthcare Edition.
Complementary products the help to build of a complete solution include workstations and displays, also thin clients mounting brackets. HP DaaS Analytics and Proactive Management is an offering that makes sense for the healthcare environment.
Partner offerings make up a full portfolio and include medical carts, surgical displays and pharmacy POS software
Tech helps to improve patient engagement
It’s not always easy for patients to understand the full extent of their health issues, and how they need to manage their own care away from the doctor or hospital.
The team at Palmetto Health Medical Group traditionally used printed documents to communicate with patients, but found this had limited usefulness.
When advanced medical information was rather explained in a 3D visual and easy-to-follow format, they found that patient engagement improved.
Using HP EliteBook x360s and Visual Health Solutions’ Patient Nexus animated videos and 3D dissectible and rotatable anatomical models, patients are more likely to follow the directions of their physician.
The HP EliteBook x360 is a thin, convertible PC. When combined with Patient Nexus animation it provides a tool for patients to take ownership of their health. This includes the ongoing management of the small but impactful daily activities that result in preventative care and patient well-being.