title: Mobile consultant: evaluation of additional services.
abstract: As the need for mobility in the medical world increases, newer systems and applications came to light; many of them based on wireless and mobile networks. PDA based systems were presented in the past, capable of videoconferencing and transmitting high quality images between a roaming consultant and a fixed point in the hospital. These systems not only had desirable characteristics but also incorporated additional services that were found of value: paging, Voice over IP calling, Internet, email, intranet, patient record update, etc This paper presents an engineering and clinical evaluation of those additional services based on both objective and subjective criteria. It concludes that such complementary services can be desirable as they increase personnel mobility, utilize the hospital resources more efficiently while at the same time increase productivity and decrease the cost of hardware and communications.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Design, E&CE, Brunel University, West London, England.
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Banitsas
authors.forename: Pantelis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Georgiadis
authors.forename: Sapal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tachakra
authors.forename: Dionisis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cavouras
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004739:England; D006747:Hospital Communication Systems / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*