A Preliminary Study Toward Wireless Integration of Patient Information System

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study toward generating a wireless environment to provide real-time mobile accessibility to patient information system. A trial system is set up where database, Internet, and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) are integrated in such a way that the medical professionals like physicians, nurses, and lab assistants can create, access, and update medical records using wireless PDAs from any location in the hospital, which is covered by wireless LAN. The same services, which can be carried out via fixed terminals with Internet connectivity, can be carried out using wireless PDAs. The implementation has used and integrated many technologies like active server pages (ASP), Visual Basic®, structured query language (SQL) server, ActiveSync®, IEEE802.11 wireless locala area network (WLAN) technology and wireless security concepts. The paper details the architectural aspects of technology integration and the methodology used for setting up the end-to-end system. The proposed architecture, its performance data, and the common implementation barriers are reported.