Cisco Unveils Complete 'Connected Health Solution' to Help Create Connected Health Community

Bangkok - March 3, 2009 - Cisco has introduced a complete range of Connected Health solutions in Thailand, outlining its vision to help create a Connected Health Community with the network as the platform. One of the first members of this community is Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital, which has become a fully Connected Hospital. NexEntel brings its expertise in technology integration and business processes towards building these collaborative healthcare services.

Vatsun Thirapatarapong, General Manager, Commercial Business, Cisco Systems (Thailand) Ltd., said: "The 'connected' approach is very relevant today in the healthcare sector as organizations align technology and operational needs to support and streamline information flows. Healthcare organizations need a community that will support a broader vision of interconnected and mutually dependent processes, shared information, and resources working seamlessly toward a common goal. Cisco Connected Health allows people to connect into the health community - including hospitals, remote location, patients, clinicians, pharmacists, research institutes, employers, employees and public health organizations."

Connected Health provides health organizations with a platform to broaden collaboration. In doing so, it holds the promise of significant improvements in patient experiences, in addition to reducing redundancies and increasing efficiency and effectiveness while controlling costs effectively. For example, physicians are able to connect to key information - including the latest medical knowledge and treatments - enabling them to reduce errors and guide patients more efficiently along their journey.

Moreover, in a Connected Health environment, patients can take an active role in their own well-being, because they have direct access to information and the ability to influence medical decisions. Connected Health extends beyond previous concepts of preventive medicine or remote monitoring, touching patients before they need medical care.

Vatsun added that Cisco Connected Health has a Medical-Grade Network to provide an infrastructural foundation throughout the continuum of care, with Cisco Connected Imaging to deliver imaging as a service from the foundation of the Medical Grade Network. Images are virtualized and optimized in a medical archive, making them available anywhere across a healthcare enterprise.

Cisco Clinical Connection Suite enables patients and their families, clinicians, and administrators, to communicate through the innovative use of data, voice, and video. The Clinical Connection Suite consists of Collaborative Care to provide instant, multimedia language interpretation to an increasingly diverse patient population; Context Aware Healthcare to integrate location and sensor information to respond quickly to patients, coordinate assets, and streamline workflow; Mobile Care to facilitate collaboration among mobile caregivers by helping them stay in contact wherever they are; and Nurse Call to to integrate voice and data solutions, delivering nurse call alerts to Cisco wireless phones and other end points such as Cisco TelePresence for Healthcare. These solutions make it easier and more convenient for clinicians to collaborate, regardless of location.

Vanchai Savangwongsakul, Managing Director of NexEntel Limited said each industry has specific requirements and limitations, and thus different challenges in technology applications. "Most importantly, we have to appropriately combine technology into particular business processes. For example, for the healthcare industry, it is necessary to use a medical solution with components that connect clinicians, patients and health information to enable collaborative healthcare services. Such a solution dynamically connects the right people with patient information in order to improve the time-to-treatment ratio and to facilitate access to the right specialists wherever they are," he said.

Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital has deployed the Cisco Unified IP Phone 7970 and wireless Cisco Unified IP Phone 7921G, loaded with custom applications developed by NexEntel. The hospital has also installed hundreds of Wi-Fi access points with intelligent network management. This solution enables centralized management, supports data security policies and increases the network's efficiency and availability. Samitivej's other solutions include patient discharge system, video-based interpreter services, and medical image sharing.

Dr.Somsiri Sakolsattayadorn, Samitivej Sukhumvit's Hospital Director, said, Samitivej, a leading private hospital in the Southeast Asian region, believes that Information and communications technology is the key to addressing the challenges the hospital industry faces today. "We also believe ICT can help improve our services, reduce cost and complications of work. That is the reason why we have become a truly 'Connected Hospital'," she said.

By incorporating the Connected Health vision, Samitivej has improved its infrastructure, processes and applications with Cisco's technologies and expertise. Samitivej will continue to enhance its ICT infrastructure to provide more benefits to its business, organization, staff, patients and other internal or external stakeholders.

"Our mission to become a fully 'Connected Hospital' is realized today. With the help of these advanced technologies from Cisco, all key functions of our hospital are connected. Our patients are also connected to the hospital. The results are greater convenience for customers and at the same time improved efficiency for the hospital," added Dr.Somsiri.