Medical Electronics Design

Advantech Medical Computing Enabling Digital Healthcare

Healthcare systems around the globe are experiencing tremendous pressure to improve services while containing costs. There is a trend towards real-time, paperless and filmfree patient monitoring, nursing care and medical record tracking. The complexity and diversity of clinical environments requires advanced yet flexible technology, the ability to quickly adapt and customize, and a high level of integration and networking. There is a need for high-quality image display products for x-ray, ultrasound, surgery monitoring systems, endoscope visualization as well as a variety of HIS (Hospital Information Systems), CIS (Clinical Information Systems), PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems), LIS (Laboratory Information Systems) and PIS (Preoperative Information Systems).

Sophisticated information technologies are required to manage patient information, diagnostics procedures, conduct research, and analyze and interpret lab results. Health and medical informatics experts are planning the next generation of patient management and medical support systems, and they rely on advanced yet reliable technology, high-performance yet power-efficient solutions, expertise in project management and systems integration, and a wide range of certified products.

Medical, clinical and healthcare settings have unique requirements in terms of sealing, thermal and acoustic properties, electromagnetic interference control, longevity, certification, and adherence to strict rules and regulations. Certifications, in particular, play a crucial role in today’s accelerated thrust towards national Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems.

Experience in the Medical Market
Our success and reputation in the medical market is built on solid design, unmatched support, and vast manufacturing experience. Advantech has been working with the world’s largest medical technology providers for many years, and has gained unparalleled experience in the medical market segment. We have a full roster of medical products to fit all requirements, R&D teams dedicated to medical technology research and implementation, extensive customization capabilities, and a global sales and service organization that guarantees rapid time-to-market and dedicated local support.

ADVANTECH MEDICAL COMPUTING

Advantech offers:

Multi-national company with worldwide presence
Over ten years experience in medical markets
Full lineup of medical computing solutions
Global logistics with local support
ISO 13485 certified vendor; vast certification experience
Extensive customization capabilities
Experience from working with the Top-10 global medical companies
Dedicated medical R&D engineering teams
Expertise in governmental regulations and approvals
Multi-core as well as low power product and embedded solutions
X-ray, ultrasound, imaging, patient monitoring, patient record MIT expertise

Advantech: A Trusted Leader in Medical Computing

Advantech has been a leader in providing a wide range of certified computing systems and services for the medical market for over a decade. Advantech works closely with regulatory agencies, minimizing time to market by examining compliance and regulatory requirements as well as providing consulting and testing services to ensure products are in compliance with global healthcare market regulations.

Experience in the Medical Market
Experience is crucial in the medical market that requires a high degree of technical and scientific expertise as well as detailed knowledge of pertaining regulations and requirements. Advantech has over a decade of experience in all levels of the medical market.

Serving the Top-10 Global Medical Companies
As a leader in clinical information systems, preoperative systems, electronic patient record systems, point-of-care terminals, diagnostic displays as well as numerous other medical systems technologies, Advantech is a supplier to the top-10 global medical companies, leveraging our embedded systems and services expertise to provide superior healthcare technology.

ISO 13485 Certification
Now more than ever, proper certification is crucial for contract and bid qualifications. Advantech is ISO 13485 certified by the International Organization for Standardization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. ISO 13485 sets quality standard for the design and manufacturing of medical devices.

Other Medical Certifications
Electronic products for use in medical settings must be designed for maximum safety, minimum electronic interference, and for superior reliability. They also must conform to UL60601 in the US and EN60601 in Europe. Advantech POCs are UL60601-1/EN60601-1 approved, making them ideal and secure point-of-care solution for patients and hospital practitioners.

Comprehensive Range of Medical Computing Solutions
Advantech provides systems integrators with a comprehensive lineup of medical and complementary products, embedded key components, and related services. This includes highperformance systems as well as low-power solutions, advanced thermal engineering, drip- and dust-proof enclosures, medical safety approvals, fanless designs, and more.

Dedicated Medical R&D Team of Engineers
Unlike some of the competition, Advantech has its own dedicated medical R&D team of engineers with detailed knowledge of medical technologies and deliberate understanding of clinical environments, as we have cultivated this area over a decade. Understanding core technologies such X-ray, ultrasound, patient monitoring, and various imaging systems as well as the clinical applications gives Advantech an edge in quick and cost-efficient project implementation and helps us stay at the very forefront of medical information technologies.

Strict Revision Control and Superior Design Reliability
As a Premier member of Intel’s Embedded and Communications Alliance, Advantech provides the latest and most reliable products and technologies. To reduce revisions, all components are selected for longevity, and we offer full 10-year design change traceability. Before field trials, new designs pass over 200 tests, including functionality and reliability. We work with customers from requirement assessment to design and prototyping, validations, and finally production in a process with strict revision controls, advanced testing and inspection, and certified quality assurance, all geared towards flawless design reliability.

Customization Capability
As a global leader offering state-of-the-art embedded and industrial computing as well as a comprehensive eServices and solutions, Advantech has unsurpassed customization capability. This allows our customers to implement highly specialized medical and clinical solutions quickly and efficiently, taking advantage of Advantech’s experience in thermal engineering, noise abatement, targeted performance and all other aspects of medical information technology.

Global Logistics—Local Support
As a multi-national company with thousands of employees and support in dozens of major cities worldwide, Advantech is in the unique position of being able to provide comprehensive global logistics augmented by personalized local support.

Advantech: Medical Products

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POC (Point-of-Care terminals) — Advantech’s Point-of-Care terminals are designed as medical-grade panel computers for a variety of healthcare applications. The touch screen-equipped POCs, built to prevent electronic emissions, come in a variety of configurations with screen sizes ranging from 12 to 19 inches diagonally. They resist spills and water damage, and keep out dust via sealed LCDs and enclosures. Fanless design facilitates easy cleaning and silent operation. POCs are also used for barcode scanning, viewing of electronic patient records, and use of medical software.

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Mobile Clinical Assistant — Based on Intel’s MCA reference architecture, Advantech’s MICA-101 Mobile Clinical Assistant is a full commercial system based on the Atom processor. Its low heat dissipation facilitates a sealed, fanless design that provides a competitive advantage over fan-based designs that are more difficult to disinfect. The MICA-101 features easy connectivity via WiFi, Bluetooth and optional 3.5G mobile communication. It has a dual digitzer for both touch and pen operation, as well as an integrated camera, RFID reader, and optional barcode scanner and webcam.

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PIT (Patient Infotainment Terminal) — These touch screen “bedside terminals” are panel PCs that allow patients to do anything from watching movies and TV, making phone calls, playing games or communicating via the Internet. They include RFID, a digital camera and a smart card reader for data capture and identification purposes and can also be used by hospital staff. The PIT platform also includes LED light indicators and prominent nurse call buttons for emergencies. It can also be customized for LED panel turn on/off.

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MT (Medical Tablet) — Compact and light, the Advantech Medical Tablet is a sealed, silent tool for clinical jobs and nursing care applications. Its 10.4-inch high-contrast touch screen display, dust and water splash-proof enclosure, and integrated WiFi make it perfect for medical settings.

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PIN (mini PC) — Designed specifically for healthcare settings, the PIN medical mini PC is a compact, waterproof solution for space-limited hospital applications. Using a fanless design for silent operation, the mini PC can support dual high resolution displays such as Advantech’s high contrast 17 and 19-inch PDC medical image displays where one screen is used for X-ray, endoscope, PACS or other applications, and the second for displaying and updating patient records.

Complementary Products:

Mini-ITX — Advantech Mini-ITX boards with their small footprint are ideal for medical markets that require compact size, power efficiency and silent operation. Atom-powered Mini-ITX boards provide advanced features and options while offering targeted performance at a very competitive price.

Industrial computer chassis — Medical environments require industrial strength solutions. Our rugged, flexible Advantech wallmount and desktop industrial computer chassis are compatible with a variety of Advantech Single Board Computers for compact, quiet, and power-efficient medical customer solutions.

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SBC — For applications requiring very low power 3.5- or 5.25-inch Biscuit Single Board Computers Advantech offers a variety of products that support SATA I/O, dual-channel LVDS and a rich complement of onboard connectivity.

Advantech Medical Technology—Application Examples

Integrating our Technology into Real World Healthcare Solutions
When a leading Australian system integrator needed to develop an image capture solution for surgeons and operating room staff, they combined complex software with the best medical grade panel PC hardware they could find—Advantech Point-of-Care terminals. The terminals were already certified to the pertaining standards, thus facilitating simplified approval, the touchscreen and enclosure could be cleaned and disinfected with medical/surgical grade cleaning agents, and the appropriate expansion slots were available to accommodate a special video capture card. The system significantly reduced administrative processing time, improved the delivery of surgical reports, and allowed for easy documentation and archiving.

When Medical Center Alkmaar in the Netherlands searched for new ways to improve patient care and medical efficiency, they needed not only first-rate technology, but also digital technology that would work in their humid hospital environment. 15- and 17-inch Advantech POC terminals fit the bill with their resistance to spills and water damage as well as the ease of cleaning and disinfecting the touchscreen-equipped fanless enclosures.

St. Louis Children Hospital and the University of Washington needed a specialized mobile monitor for their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to facilitate early diagnoses and timely decisions. A special monitoring system was developed by St. Louis clinicians, using highly reliable Advantech POC terminals whose bright displays make rapid review easy.

A London, UK, system integrator required novel medical sensors and software to enable doctors and nurses to improve care for stroke and heart patients after surgery, while reducing costs as well. The answer was a real-time POC cardiovascular monitoring system that translated physiological data into clinical information. The client chose Advantech medical grade panels due to their certification, ease of equipment sanitation, fanless design and quiet operation. The system resulted in improved efficiency, efficient access to patient information, and enhanced medical care quality.

Eliminating human error and meeting growing efficiency expectations was the goal of the Taichung Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan. The hospital embarked on a major initiative in replacing errorprone pen and paper data entry with direct entry into point-of-care terminals installed on mobile medical carts. They chose a low-power POC solution by Advantech that provided full-shift battery operation, ruggedness, the connectivity required to add peripherals, and scanning capabilities.

ADVANTECH MEDICAL COMPUTING

The 2009 US “HITECH Act”
The US Federal Economic Stimulus legislation that passed Congress and was signed by President Obama in February 2009 includes almost US$20 billion to modernize health care systems with the goal of switching to electronic patient records for all Americans by the year 2014.

Division B, Title IV on Health Information Technology, also known as the HITECH Act, calls for a nationwide health infor-mation technology infrastructure to improve healthcare by reducing inefficiency, incomplete information, and medical errors; providing medical decision support at the point of care; improving coordination among hospitals, labs, offices, and other heath care providers; advancing public health activities, promoting choices, etc.

The legislation allocates grants and funding to promote health information technology. Certified electronic health records product vendors will benefit from the large portion of the HITECH Act’s funding geared towards physicians and hospitals purchasing and implementing medical technology solutions.

For more information:
www.advantech.com/medical
ECGInfo@advantech.com