Leanard Boggio, who heads information and communications initiatives for PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Vancouver, British Columbia, maintains that wireless will take hold in the corporate/institutional sectors before it makes it into the mass market.

In a recent global survey, A.T. Kearney, a Plano, Texas based e-business consulting firm, reports that only 12% of respondents intent to take advantage of mobile e-commerce, down sharply from 32% , one year ago.

The report "A Rude Awakening for WAP Dreamers." goes on to say: "The industry as a whole must act quickly to reverse the alarming decline in Web purchasing intentions and accelerate the evolution of the phone into a multi-purpose personal tool." --- Good luck to you! Consumers see little value in surfing the web on their PDAs, let alone trying to browse the Sears catalog on the ridiculously tiny screen of a cell phone.

The sharing of "mission critical" data is the highest and best use of wireless. Healthcare is not only poised to take advantage of mission critical wireless data networking, healthcare is leading the way!

There are several ways wireless technologies are being introduced into Healthcare Information Management Systems.

The long and the short of IT.

"B2B" Wireless Networking *

Chances are that you've already engaged in wireless networking. Although you may not have thought of it in those terms. Most of us have used, or at least played with, the infrared beaming capabilities of our gadgets. If you've ever "beamed" an application, game or an "electronic business card" to a friend or colleague, you've already benefited from the wireless revolution.

Infrared ( light waves of a lower frequency than human eyes can perceive) beaming is an undoubtedly handy tool to have incorporated in your PDA, but it has limited distance and transfer rate (bandwidth) capabilities. Furthermore infrared is a "line of sight" technology. For example, you have to point your gadget directly your friends gadget before interesting things can happen. Also infrared is almost always a "one to one" technology. You can send data between your desktop computer and your laptop computer but not to your laptop computer and your PDA at the same time. Connecting multiple devices, with higher bandwidth and no "line of sight" requirements, requires the introduction of another short range wireless technology. Enter Bluetooth.

Wireless Personal Area Networking (WPAN)

Bluetooth systems create a Personal Area Network (PAN) or "piconet" that may fill a room or may encompass no more distance than that between your PDA in your pocket and the PC/laptop in front of you.

Bluetooth is a radio-frequency standard. And as such it neatly side steps the need for "line of sight". In fact you don't have to think about it at all. Bluetooth doesn't require you to do anything special to make it work. Bluetooth enabled devices find one another and strike up a conversation without any user input.

Bluetooth communicates on a frequency of 2.45 gigahertz, which has been set aside by international agreement for the use of industrial, scientific and medical devices (ISM). A number of devices that you may already use take advantage of this same radio-frequency band. Baby monitors, garage-door openers and the newest generation of cordless phones all make use of frequencies in the ISM band.

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)

Location based wireless access is already reaping benefits in our institutions. 802.11x networks are taking root in hospitals, clinics and on university campuses. Tulane University, has recently implemented the first wireless access platform that utilizes the 802.11a standard to connect 80 buildings on campus and Cedars Sinai Medical Center has wired all its conference rooms, meeting rooms and auditoria with wireless access points, using the wireless 802.11(b) standard. 802.11x offers true wireless broadband and is steadily increasing in popularity with institutions and the public in general.

Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWAN)

Handspring plans to deliver GPRS service at some point in the future with it's PDA/phone, Treo line of "communicators". Initially the Treo will ship only with GMS capabilities, but the company says "Treo will fully exploit the benefits of GPRS networks" when services become more widely available. This has the potential of enhancing long-range data access on home visits by organizations like, the VNA Home Health Systems in Santa Ana (VNAHHS), lead by the mobile informatics innovator, Jeneane A Brian. Jeneane is currently investigating the addition of wireless capabilities to her already "mobile" team.

Go to page 3 for "Components of a Wireless Network"

Wireless page 1 2 3

* NOTE: bellybutton 2 bellybutton is not an official designation, we just feel it's descriptive ;-)