As a result, a focus on business continuity and resilience in the healthcare sector has highlighted the pivotal role of healthcare technology and digital transformation within the space. For the health sector to meet the challenges we face now, and in the future, CIOs must review their readiness to deliver the following:

1. Virtual care solutions

Telehealth facilities and virtual care have rapidly become the norm in the time of COVID-19. Continuity of quality health care can be established by connecting medical practitioners with their patients, or with medical colleagues for collaboration and consultation.

High-quality cameras and audio-visual equipment beside the bed or over the bed allow for consultation and rehabilitation. Mobile video conferencing carts enable healthcare facilities to share the technology between beds or wards, bringing remote expertise to the bedside.

2. Communication via digital signage platforms

The information delivered via a secure digital signage platform can increase patient engagement, can put patients at ease and improve the healthcare experience and patient outcomes. Interactive wayfinding stations can help to direct visitors, patients and families to their intended destinations more rapidly, enhancing social distancing efforts and reducing time spent searching or needing human interaction.

Communication instantly improves between patients and health professionals when displaying relevant, targeted, and informative health messaging and content in each location. Every screen can be managed efficiently from one centralised platform that easily scales as your digital signage network grows.

3. Mobile video conferencing and collaboration

Video conferencing and collaboration solutions enable health practitioners to mobilise and connect with clinicians or other health professionals, regardless of location or proximity to a meeting room. Medical service providers can interact with their patients remotely and safely.

Video conferencing technology is a spatial barrier breaker. By using video conferencing, healthcare service providers can meet patients who are located far away, in remote locations or patients who are immobile and cannot visit health care facilities. It is today’s new version of house calls.

Rural patients can visit smaller local clinics, which may be near their homes, and access specialised treatment from clinicians in urban areas via web conferencing while under the guidance of their local G.P. In addition to this, doctors can use video conferencing to track the recovery of their patient post-discharge, ensuring patients are recovering as expected and receiving high-quality medical care.

4. Artificial intelligence

The integration of Artificial Intelligence models in healthcare is fundamentally going to change the global health care system – making it possible to radically redesign the medical diagnosis system and develop new approaches to medical treatment. Not only will AI improve the quality of healthcare services, but it will reduce costs for medical clinics.

AI can use electronic health records and other operational data to integrate with existing clinical workflow tools to provide real-time data. The use of AI and predictive analytics can help medical practitioners detect diseases earlier and more accurately than before. Rather than manually identifying patterns in diseases, healthcare professions can use AI to interpret patterns too subtle for the human eye to detect, directly from the data supplied.

5. Networks

Today hospital networks are growing in importance and reliability. The introduction of new and ever-more advanced medical technologies, devices or communication tools, together with stringent regulations for enhanced patient confidentiality and data security, can lead to a high level of complexity for healthcare IT professionals.

Unlike enterprise networks, hospital networks have no breathing room for downtime and so both wired and wireless networks need to be resilient and able to scale up in response to unplanned surges. They must be able to adapt to rapid adoption of modern, innovative technologies and automation.

As medical devices become network-enabled and organisations become more connected, it’s essential to put strong cybersecurity systems in place to protect networks and prevent breaches that could have damaging consequences. To achieve this, it’s essential to have full network visibility, including all devices that are connected to the network, so that they can be leveraged to their full potential in achieving better staff and patient experiences and long-term outcomes for the organisation.

The future of healthcare lies in working together with new technology. Healthcare workers must embrace emerging healthcare technologies to stay relevant in the coming years.

To explore more about the medical technologies reshaping healthcare, check out our services or alternatively contact us today. You can also download our free whitepaper, Communication in Healthcare.

The post The Future of Health Care Technology first appeared on Syndeticom.

The post The Future of Health Care Technology appeared first on Syndeticom.

Web-conferencing has been around for a while now and given the number of out-of-the-box solutions available these days, you would think it’s simple. However, the reality is that getting web-conferencing right can be a challenge.

Although the many out-of-the-box solutions that provide simple one-click meetings with screen sharing and instant messaging have simplified some aspects of online conferencing, it has caused complications in the standard meeting room environment.

It’s not surprising then that we still hear a lot of web-conferencing related questions. We thought we’d shed some light by sharing the answers to some of the most common questions we hear from the market.

1. How can I optimise my meeting rooms for web-conferencing?

Not every room is suitable for high-quality web-meetings. Things like shape, placement of doors and windows and concave surfaces can significantly impact the suitability of a space. These are factors you want to consider when designing your office spaces.

There are other aspects of a room that you can change, even when the room is already built, in order to improve the quality of your web-meetings. They include

• Optimising the lighting based on the camera location
• Using absorptive materials to enhance the acoustics in the room
• Selecting furniture that allows all participants to see the screen and camera
• Choosing appropriate wall colours to allow a camera to see the subject clearly

For more details on how to get room lighting, acoustics, layout and wall colour right, download our free AV Buyer’s Guide.

2. What camera is best?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. The best camera solution depends on the size of the room, the use case, the lighting in the room and other elements.

Generally, device cameras are the least ideal option and should only be used when no other camera is available. Beyond that, fixed in-room cameras are often a good choice for smaller meeting rooms while we would recommend auto-cropping cameras or pan tilt zoom cameras for medium and large spaces.

But choosing the right camera comes down to more than just the room size. We recommend getting advice from an experienced supplier based on your specific space and environment.

3. Which microphone and speaker are best?

As with the camera question above, there is no simple answer. Again, we would discourage the use of device microphones and speakers and would recommend a headset as the minimum solution.

Beyond that, there are many options, ranging from in-table microphones and speakers to those installed in ceilings and others.

As with cameras, we recommend working with a team of experts that check out your space and recommend the right solution for you.

4. Why do many organisations still struggle to make web-conferencing work seamlessly when it should be simple these days?

That is an excellent question. In a way, we think that the countless ‘simple’ solutions that are now available have maybe made things look too simple.

In the past, video-conferencing specialists were often engaged to help with the design of meeting spaces and the installation of hardware to make collaboration with remote parties possible. Now that the conferencing device is a PC, we’re seeing a worrying trend of businesses purchasing USB microphones and cameras for all of their meeting rooms without any consideration as to their suitability for the space – or even the space’s suitability for web-conferencing. This often leads to poor sound and video quality and frustrated employees when the technology is not working as they need it to.

It’s been our experience that when designed and implemented correctly with a trusted partner, web-conferencing solutions really are simple and seamless.

Are you interested in learning more about how to design web-conferencing solutions that enable seamless communication and collaboration? Then check out our free buyer’s guide to learn more about web-conferencing as well as video walls, another popular AV technology.

Learn more and download the guide here.

Download Guide Now

The post The Top Four Most Common Questions About Web-Conferencing first appeared on Syndeticom.

The post The Top Four Most Common Questions About Web-Conferencing appeared first on Syndeticom.

One of these universal challenges that we hear a lot is communication. Every week, we talk to businesses who struggle to get their message through to the right people at the right time. Given how busy everyone is these days, how competitive many industries are, and how much information is thrown at people every day, it’s no surprise that it can be hard to be seen and heard.

While the problem is obvious, the solution is anything but simple. However, we’ve seen first-hand how, when done right, audio visual technology can help businesses overcome these communication challenges. Innovative AV solutions offer companies new communication channels and help optimise existing channels to ensure effective and seamless communication and collaboration – with customers, staff and other stakeholders.

Among the businesses we work with, two AV solutions have proven to be particularly effective tools in optimising communication. They are video walls and web-conferencing.

While fundamentally different technologies with different use cases, both are designed to help businesses communicate more effectively.

Video walls provide an excellent platform for grabbing the attention of a wide and diverse audience and WOW them with bright, vibrant visuals. Web-conferencing, while less exciting at first sight, is a fundamental tool for many businesses that their people rely on every day.

However, while video walls, web-conferencing and other modern AV technologies can offer many benefits, they can also place a significant burden on your business if not implemented correctly.

And that brings us to a critical point. We often see businesses focus a lot of time and energy on selecting the right AV solutions. While choosing the right products is important, it has been our experience that there is one factor that impacts the long-term success and ROI of AV technology much more than the choice of products. That factor is implementation.

Without proper implementation, even the best tools and solutions can result in communication break-downs, inefficient time utilisation and frustration. Therefore, our number one tip for anyone looking to invest in AV technology to improve communication is to find the right implementation partner.

How do you find the right implementation partner? Here are a few things to look for:

• Do they have a proven track record of implementing quality solutions?
• Will they put forward differing budgetary versions for your scope?
• Do they attract excellent referrals from customers?
• Do they have a support team that promptly address issues that arise?
• Do they not only implement the solution but also offer training for your team (when needed) and ongoing support?

Working with a partner that ticks all of these boxes will give you the best chance of implementing AV solutions that will help you improve communication and collaboration – now and for the future.

If you would like to learn more about how AV technology can help you communicate and collaborate more effectively, check out our free guide for video walls and web-conferencing. The guide provides an overview of these two communication technologies and outlines the various benefits, use cases, pitfalls and common mistakes, as well as the key factors organisations need to know about when investigating such a solution.

Download Guide Now

The post How AV Technology Can Help Improve Internal and External Communication first appeared on Syndeticom.

The post How AV Technology Can Help Improve Internal and External Communication appeared first on Syndeticom.