Healthcare has gone digital. From electronic health records to continuous glucose monitors to the smartwatches on your wrist, health information management increasingly requires seamless connectivity—and much of the time, that connectivity is fueled by Wi-Fi. Today, technologies enabled by Wi-Fi are reducing healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes by reliably and securely carrying medical telemetry.
Medical Records at Your Doctor’s Fingertips
Patient medical records no longer sit in a paper file; today, they live in the cloud in a highly secure electronic health record. Healthcare professionals use Wi-Fi to access these electronic health records from computers or tablets at a patient’s bedside, giving providers instantaneous access to a patient’s medication list and medical history.
Wi-Fi also provides doctors and technicians with real-time access to X-rays and MRI scans. Likewise, it enables medical professionals to monitor patients in the intensive care unit or in need of critical care from a central location like a nurse’s station. Wi-Fi connects healthcare providers to patient information they need at the point of care, empowering them to make the best healthcare decisions.
Online Health Resources Changing the Conversation
In addition to patient information, Wi-Fi connects providers with important online health tools that can improve healthcare outcomes. At the Mayo Clinic, for instance, clinicians use an online Diabetes Medication Choice Decision Conversation Aid on their tablets or phones to talk with their diabetes patients about their options for medications. Diabetes medications such as insulin and statins can be complicated and can have challenging side effects, so this tool breaks down the various options and empowers patients to help to make informed decisions about their course of treatment. Wi-Fi-enabled tools like these facilitate the doctor/patient conversation, give patients agency in their medical choices and ultimately improve care.
Connected Devices: Critical to Healthcare
Today, the way in which medications and care are administered in hospital settings require Wi-Fi connectivity. Modern hospital rooms have Wi-Fi-connected infusion pumps, oxygen monitoring devices, smart beds and more which keep patients connected to the care team 24/7. In fact, in the U.S., the average hospital room has over 15 devices that are usually connected over a Wi-Fi network.
Even outside of the acute care setting, connected devices have become increasingly important for patients, particularly those managing chronic conditions such as obesity or diabetes. Recognizing the importance of these devices to patient outcomes, Oschner Health System in Louisiana established its “O Bar.” A play off of Apple’s “Genius Bar,” O Bars are quasi-retail spaces located within medical groups and health systems that offer patients the opportunity to try and buy physician-recommended medical technology such as Wi-Fi-enabled scales, weight loss apps and wireless blood pressure cuffs. O Bar consultants help patients set up their wireless technology and put it to good use, setting them up for success. Importantly, most of these technologies rely on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which both run over unlicensed spectrum.
The Need for Unlicensed Spectrum
Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi-enabled technologies are an integral part of healthcare delivery systems today and, because of this, delivering modern healthcare technologies requires large amounts of unlicensed spectrum to operate. But as more and more devices run over this finite spectrum, we are running out of sufficient bandwidth to support them. That’s why it is so important that the FCC take a fresh look and designate more spectrum for unlicensed use to power these technologies. Health and healthcare in this country depend on it.