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Hospital Application in Singapore
Location: Singapore
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Introduction The Singapore Government developed plan IT2000: to make Singapore an intelligent city by further improving business competitiveness and infrastructure, as well as by upgrading the overall living standard. IT2000 covered all major sectors of the Singaporean economy - healthcare was one of them. It turned out that Panel PCs were ideally "Fit for Integration" in this sector.
A local university teaching hospital was the first to embark on a project to computerize medical records, including image files. All records were stored in a database and could be easily retrieved by using one of the computer terminals, which were located throughout the hospital complex. Since the Panel PC is compact-sized and some hospital areas were limited in terms of space, it was perfect for this application.
The first phase of installing 15 Panel PCs in specialist clinics has already been completed and soon all 60 specialist clinics will be equipped with Advantech's Panel PCs.
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 Application
Before using Panel PC, the doctor's desk was often occupied with a 17" monitor, barcode scanner, mouse, keyboard and numerous files. Underneath the cluttered desk would be the CPU. The monitor was used to view images and access data for both diagnostic and teaching purposes, while the barcode scanner, mouse and keyboard were used for data entry and writing prescriptions. The monitor alone would occupy nearly half of the desk, leaving barely enough space for the doctor to work.
Peripherals for installation
Since the client wanted to save as much space as possible, it seemed that installing the PPC-140T on an arm mounting would be the best solution. The customer could chose from 4 different types of arm mountings, but all types were unsatisfactory. Fortunately, Advantech designers came up with a desktop stand, which the customer finally chose to use. In this case, Panel PCs are replacing conventional PCs and will be mounted on either a swing arm or desktop stand.
Display resolution
The doctors have to run their own specific application software, which is often designed for a 800x600 display screen. Using the PPC-140T with TFT LCD would therefore mean that the rest of the screen would not be used. However, Advantech had a new BIOS written to tackle this problem and have the AP displayed on a full screen (1024x768).
The other inherent problem with the new BIOS is the sharpness of the images. A 800x600 image viewed in 1024x768 mode results in poor resolution, so Advantech is currently developing an algorithm to solve this problem.
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The following items are still being improved:
- Mounting - the back panel needs to be designed to fit any type of arm mounting.
- BIOS - a new algorithm is required to improve display quality.
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- The PPC's compact size - it occupies less space than the traditional PC system does.
- Health aspect. Compared to conventional CRT monitor, the PPC's TFT LCD transmits much less radiation. This is an important factor to take into consideration since the machine will be used for long hours every day.
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