Next-Generation Healthcare Comes To Life

Motorola completes enterprise mobility implementation at hospital for delivery of world-class patient care and service

Motorola, Inc. today announced it has initiated implementation of a state-of-the-art wireless infrastructure project that will provide the backbone for delivering world-class healthcare services to over a million patients annually at Thailand's Bumrungrad International hospital. Bumrungrad selected an enterprise mobility solution from Motorola that includes wireless switching and over 300 access points, enabling hospital staff to access real-time information and data messaging capabilities while on the hospital's 90,000 m2 campus.

Located in Bangkok, Thailand, Bumrungrad International is the largest private hospital in Southeast Asia and has built a strong reputation as a leading medical tourism destination. It differentiates itself through a focus on technology to provide world-class healthcare service to its patients. With the new wireless network, hospital staff will have access to real-time patient information which enables them to provide improved healthcare services and advice to their patients. Hospital staff will be equipped with Motorola mobile computing devices through which they can access hospital information and patient records on Hospital 2000, Bumrungrad's hospital information management system provided by Global Care Solutions. The wireless network will also enable Bumrungrad's long-term vision to provide information and internet access to every patient throughout the hospital.

The network topology will include the Motorola WS5100 wireless switch as the core backbone. Bumrungrad chose the WS5100 switch for its Layer 3 roaming capability to handle multi-floor and large-scale campus wide deployments without the need for external applications and third-party servers. By allowing mobile users to maintain a persistent connection to high-bandwidth applications as they roam throughout the wireless coverage area, the switch will provide the foundation for Bumrungrad's long term vision to expand and deploy other WiFi services. Bumrungrad plans to upgrade to the core switching platform to the Motorola RFS7000 Wireless Next Generation Switch when it is released later this year. The RFS7000 is the industry's first radio frequency (RF) wireless switch that bridges the gap between Wi-Fi, RFID and other key RF technologies, and is designed to support value-add, optional add-on modules such as fixed-mobile convergence to provide seamless persistent connectivity for mobile and fixed devices.

Furthermore, to ensure patient information remains confidential and known only to authorized personnel, the wireless network is also protected by Motorola's Wireless Intrusion Protection System (Wireless IPS), which gives the hospital's IT administrators the capability to monitor WLAN performance 24 hours a day. The system will notify Bumrungrad's IT staff when network vulnerabilities or attacks occur, enabling an immediate response. The software architecture is scalable, simple to deploy and easy to upgrade.

Mr Chang Foo, Chief Technology Officer of Bumrungrad International, said "Technology has been, and will remain a strategic differentiator for the hospital. This implementation is instrumental to Bumrungrad in maintaining its position as a world-class healthcare provider. Thanks to the scalability of the network, we know we now have a robust infrastructure which we can build future innovations on."

He added, "We evaluated many different products and technologies during the vendor selection process, but chose Motorola because they proved to have the best products that meet our current needs for core wireless infrastructure as well as our future needs, including RFID technology."

Bumrungrad plans to take its vision of next-generation healthcare one step further through the implementation of RFID technology for staff, patient and asset tracking in 2007.

"The healthcare industry is rapidly growing across the Asia Pacific region and healthcare providers are looking to modernize and deploy wireless technologies to mobilize their workforce and provide additional services to patients," said Mr. John Cunningham, Director of RFID and wireless for the enterprise mobility business in Asia Pacific, Motorola Networks & Enterprise. "Bumrungrad is one of the leading healthcare institutions in the region and has a lot of experience in the use of technology. Through close collaboration with the IT team from Bumrungrad, Motorola was able to design a solution that will enable them to deploy Wi-Fi and RFID services through one switching platform. This will reduce their total cost of ownership and simplify management of multiple wireless infrastructure technologies."

"Bumrungrad International's selection of Motorola enterprise mobility business as its mobility technology partner is a great testimonial to the value that our solutions can bring to healthcare institutions," said Cunningham - Motorola.