Hospital mobile revolution starts with supply chain

By Peter Judge, ZDNet.co.uk, 30 July, 2002 09:09

Because the system uses a high level of intelligence in the handheld device, Pocket PC was the main contender for delivering the application. Tablet PCs were also considered, but were not mature enough, said Jones. "With Web services, the actual devices become irrelevant," said Jones. "We settled on the Pocket PC because we wanted to focus on usability." The application was developed in C# using Microsoft's Visual Studio .Net development system. The component for the Pocket PC without using Microsoft's Compact Framework, as this was only available in an early beta during development. Microsoft's SQL Server CE was a key element of the solution said Jones, allowing the team to build transactional web services for mobile use. "Web services are in their infancy," said Jones. "They are not transactional and that is an issue for central data, updated by mobile devices." The system had to keep working when the user moved outside the wireless LAN coverage or if the network was down, and synchronise when they returned to the network. "It works when the user is offline or online," said Jones. "In this case, users are online for the majority of the time, but other implementations may have more offline users." The first database on the Pocket PC was not up to the job, said Jones, but SQL Server CE, now in version 2.0 is "stable and robust enough to make sure data gets to the right point." The servers involved are running Microsoft Commerce Server, SQL Server and BizTalk. HP supplied the hardware including iPAQ Pocket PCs, and the wireless LAN comes from Cisco. The Bradford NHS Trust uses Oracle Financials for its existing stock control and supply chain applications, but none of this had to be replaced, said Jones. Instead, Web services were used to build interfaces to existing systems. This would also be the case in other trusts he said, owing the relatively undeveloped state of supply chain management in the NHS. "The vast majority of trusts have supply chain systems, but no end-to-end management capability," he said. "No single NHS trust has functionality in all the areas. Some trusts have components, depending which financials software they use, and there are some NHS-wide systems. Most trusts are missing some functionality." The NHS has the option of either investing in one ERP solution for all its trusts, or helping to develop a tailored solution which works with what is there, said Jones: "If anything gets replaced it will be something that would have needed replacing anyway." Some parts of the Trust's systems had to be replaced -- but these were proprietary terminal interfaces to ordering systems run by the stock suppliers. "These are usually antiquated, and they give the data to the supplier, rather than letting the Trust keep it and use it more effectively," said Jones. "The data is yours, not your suppliers'." For the future, KPMG has a long list of other NHS trusts to sell Wander to, and has already had interest from private sector companies. Among the extensions will be a corporate version with a mobile office environment.

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