Are PDAs and bar code scanners the advance guard of a wireless healthcare revolution or something a lot slower?

Originally Published MX September/October 2001

MARKET ANALYSIS

Flora Nguyen

Few would deny that healthcare-oriented wireless devices provide impressive capabilities. Wireless monitoring devices allow nurses to track patients' vital signs from a distance. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) provide doctors with patient records and reference materials, and can transmit legible prescriptions to pharmacies.

These wireless wonders may be on the cutting edge of healthcare information technology (IT), but in a number of hospitals they're already performing. Wireless technology is quickly becoming a brave new world of full-color handheld organizers, smart phones, and personal area networks that use the human body to conduct data signals.