Avaya explores UC in healthcare, video collaboration could be key

Unified communications and video conferencing has been tested and accepted behind corporate office walls, but the technology's use extends far beyond the walls of business. Getting this technology into the hands of doctors and nurses to improve medical care could truly transform the world of medicine. Avaya recently surveyed healthcare providers at HIMSS 2011 to find out what they saw as their needs in the field.

"With these survey results, we're seeing concerns among healthcare technology professionals about staffing and time being spent away from patients, which greatly impacts patient care and efficiency," said Bruce Wallace, Avaya's Healthcare Practice Leader in a release. "To address these challenges head-on, industry professionals are turning to communications solutions that drive faster and more productive collaboration, which makes all the difference in an industry where every second counts."

The survey asked about video-based communications in the healthcare industry and respondents saw that it could help in physician consultations and distance telemedicine. Using video, doctors can collaborate in real time and doctors calling in to add their own consultations can use real-time video to confirm their thoughts. UC can also provide document and image sharing capabilities and improve the speed of the process.

The survey found that the most important issues the hospitals were faceing in the next three years were "communication and workflow integration into Healthcare Information Systems (HIS)" followed by automated patient followup and multi-modal collaboration. Since UC turns most communications into data that can be filed and sorted, it could easily be applied to integrating with the HIS applications.

For more:
- read the release

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