Event
Summary
GE Medical Systems recently announced an alliance with PinPoint Corporation,
a developer of wireless locating solutions, to market an asset tracking
service that locates and tracks equipment within health care facilities.
The service, called IntelliMotion, will help health care providers boost
productivity and provide quality patient care by facilitating access to
all equipment, from biomedical equipment to wheelchairs.
As
part of the distribution agreement, IntelliMotion is being offered as
one of the SYNERGE services available from the Services Business of GE
Medical Systems.
The
service delivery technology uses special electronic tags and receivers,
or antennas, throughout the facility to locate equipment and track its
location. The information is linked to a network, where health care personnel
can view the equipment locations on their computer desktop.
The
IntelliMotion asset-tracking offering is part of GE Medical's SYNERGE
services, a suite of asset services helping people, information, programs
and products work together. Through a variety of offerings, including
the CompreCare program, GE Medical provides equipment management and maintenance
services to more than 2,000 hospitals worldwide. Under the terms of the
alliance, GE Medical will market IntelliMotion to these hospitals and
others globally.
Market
Impact
Technology visionaries predict a world where our refrigerators will tell
us when to buy milk and our spice rack orders cinnamon from the local
store. The notion seems a little outlandish, but the technology and network
is approaching a point where such visions will become reality.
Companies
such as PinPoint and iVita (see iVita
Mines Assets for Bottom Line Health) are exploring the technology
involved with connecting the objects around us to the network we use everyday.
The benefits are exponential. Providing companies a method for tracking,
monitoring, and including product rich information will help improve efficiencies
both during usage and at the end of a product's lifecycle.
User
Recommendations
If your company is involved with medical equipment and can benefit from
an asset management program, the GE Medical Systems solution may be worth
exploring. It is important to understand the costs associated with the
license, implementation, usage, and on-going administration.
While
the technology is exciting (and smacks of "big brother") it is important
to understand how the solution blends with existing behaviors. How easy
is it to implement? Will it be difficult to affix tracking tags to each
item? Will this require a new behavior for every item received? Will an
"extra effort" affect your employee's acceptance of the new tool?
Again,
the benefits are enormous, however the solution requires comprehensive
acceptance. We suggest users explore the license and operations costs
as well as the requirements to support the tracking tool.