Motorola is now aggressively pursuing its presence in the healthcare space with its 'Enterprise Mobility' driven devices. Currently, in India, the company is in the process of conducting pilot studies and rolling out solutions along with partners in some of the leading hospitals in Bangalore and Mumbai.

Using enterprise mobility, hospitals can combine handheld mobile computing, WLAN, RFID, barcode technologies and leading clinical IT and medical device applications, to help physicians, nurses and pharmacies obtain the information they need.

Motorola along with its partners, conducts an extensive 'mobility assessment' to understand the hospital's needs.

There are many applications within healthcare which have benefited from Motorola's mobility solutions and deployed in various hospitals worldwide. These include Patient Admission, Identification & Tracking, vital-sign monitoring, Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Insurance payment, dietary & Nutrition needs, patient assessment, Charge capture by doctors & nurses, medication administration, Transfusion verification Remote patient monitoring, specimen collection; Lab & prescription orders, Medical asset management, tracking & maintenance by Bio-med engineering, staff identification & tracking, Consumables (pharma, stores) Inventory & Supply management Duty Nurse/Doctor calls'.

Motorola's mobility solutions enable sharing of real-time information anywhere for increased patient safety. "We had significant successes with our healthcare portfolio at various leading hospitals, world-wide. Specifically in Asia-Pacific, the installations include Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Hong Kong, Bumrungrad Hospital, Thailand, Beijing Union Hospital, China to name a few," Ramesh Sundararaman, business manager, Mobile Computing Division, Motorola Enterprise Mobility, told Pharmabiz.

There are multiple players who offer point solutions. However Motorola distinguishes itself as an 'one-stop shop' for customers with its broad product portfolio: EWLAN network elements & Voice-over-WLAN handsets, Barcode & RFID scanners, Mobile computers that addresses each of these enterprise mobility architectural blocks.

"From a total cost of ownership (TCO) standpoint, the 'enterprise-grade' characteristics of our devices help contain the 'Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)' to our customers," stated Sundararaman.

The software development kit on in the Motorola devices enables 'software application portability' across the entire portfolio thereby enabling customers to migrate to new, upcoming devices as well. It avoids unnecessary software porting expenses.

From an after-sales service and support standpoint, unlike consumer-grade devices that typically go 'end-of-life (EOL)' after two to three years, with the manufacturers expecting customers to either recycle or reinvest on new devices, these devices have: EOL of seven years as against tow to three years for consumer grade devices, explained Sundararaman.

Motorola recently launched mobile computing devices, MC 55 and MC 75 that help hospitals in their operations, both within and outside the hospital premises. In addition to these devices, the company will be deepening this portfolio by introducing HSDPA standard based devices that are tailored for the Asian market. It has also been enrolling healthcare focused partners as part of its PartnerSelect programme to effectively address the hospital needs.

Motorola's India engineering centre based out of Bangalore, plays a critical role in the rollout of the entire mobility product portfolio.