Case Study: Wireless Handheld Application for an Emergency Department

Healthcare industry in Australian has started using Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) due to the flexibility and ease of use. While certain applications are suitable to PDAs, due to the sensitivity of operations in an emergency department in a hospital, the use of PDAs is not attempted in Western Australian hospitals. In 2002, a team of third year students from Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia developed a wireless system for the emergency department at St. John of God Health Care (SJOGHC) in Perth. The Centre for Electronic Commerce and Internet Studies (CECIS) at Murdoch University in conjunction with SJOGHC facilitated this project using wireless technology. This paper discusses various engineering issues encountered and how they were resolved.