Our small town is building a new hospital. We are designated as a critical care site, since we have an airstrip and the next nearest care facility in any direction is a two-three hour drive.
One of the people involved in the construction has come up with grants that would provide mobile telemetry for the ambulances. This means that pulse, blood pressure, respiration, and other medical information could wirelessly be beamed to the ER before the patient arrives and the ER would be better prepared to care for the patient.
Here’s the question –
Are any of you involved in something like this? If you are, HELP! There is so little information readily available, and salespeople are not much help. I’ve tried calling support numbers and getting answers ‘from the trenches’ about installations and possible problems, but not having much luck.
What I have found out is most of the equipment is 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz, but we have TONS of 2.4Ghz Motorola mesh type wireless already running in town (another ISP) – is it going to interfere? And what about 2.4Ghz phones?
We’re considering mobile WiMax, but the specification is still being hammered out, and nothing is available.
Our one concern is coverage. The hospital (and schools) don’t have access to put up mesh radios wherever they want, so we have to either pay, or find long range mesh radios to put in the areas we do have access to.
Anybody know anything about mobile WiMax? I’ve seen 6Mbps data rate with a range of 5 miles, that would be perfect, except nobody will quote it right now until the 802.16 spec comes out.
I probably should have blogged this rather than discussed it, but ANY comrade feedback would be appreciated.
