Polycom Delivers Connected Healthcare Solutions Featuring Integrated Voice, Video And Applications That Improve Patient Care

Polycom, Inc., the leader in telepresence, video and voice solutions, is demonstrating an end-to-end integrated voice, video and application solution for the healthcare industry at this year's HIMSS10 conference and exhibition. Polycom healthcare solutions work in tandem with key healthcare applications to deliver improved patient care, streamlined communications and workflow, enhanced productivity, and significant and immediate ROI for healthcare providers.

"Polycom understands the challenges faced by healthcare organizations today, and we've been improving communications in this industry for a number of years," said Ron Emerson, director of Global Healthcare Markets for Polycom. "We provide a wide portfolio of solutions and services that meet healthcare providers' needs, and we're accelerating efforts with Polycom Open Collaboration Network (POCN) partners to offer our customers fully integrated end-to-end solutions that can help improve patient care and enable organizations to achieve greater efficiencies."

The healthcare industry faces significant challenges, including healthcare provider shortages, an aging population with more than 70 million baby boomers, limited financial resources, remote and medically underserved areas, and rigorous continuing education requirements for certified healthcare professionals. To address these issues, Polycom provides unified communications (UC) solutions for the healthcare industry that address workflow, clinical needs and requirements for maintaining the highest level of patient care and privacy while optimizing resources. Polycom's solutions for healthcare offer flexibility, scalability, durability, and mobility, all of which are key requirements in the medical industry.

"Polycom plays a pivotal role in creating a connected healthcare environment," said Andrew R Watson, M.D., MLitt., medical director for the Center for Connected Medicine and vice president at UPMC. "Their work in telemedicine, conferencing, and other forms of communication fundamentally transforms the way providers see patients and interact with one another. Polycom's technologies bring real cost efficiencies into the system while, also enabling high quality care."

The Polycom connected healthcare demonstration at HIMSS10 exemplifies how seamless patient and caregiver communications can occur regardless of location, thereby improving patient outcomes and saving time and money for all involved. The demonstration illustrates a real-world scenario where a hospitalized patient communicates with healthcare providers both in the hospital and remotely via Polycom systems. Remote physicians are able to assess the patient, prescribe treatment and confirm that the course of treatment is being followed. One example is a telestroke scenario where Dr. Deborah A. Jeffries, Polycom director of healthcare markets, will evaluate the patient via video from one of two separate consultation areas. The technology solution highlights include:

• Market-leading Polycom HDX telepresence systems leveraging the industry's first delivery of H.264 High Profile video compression to deliver HD video from just 512 kbps for premium quality patient assessment, remote consultations, medical education and healthcare administration (including the Polycom Practitioner Cart HDX) at a fraction of the average cost across the industry.
• The Polycom Converged Management Application (CMA) Desktop for flexible, PC-based video communications supporting up to 720p high definition video for the sharpest images and most accurate patient assessments.
• Polycom's market-leading SpectraLink wireless telephones featuring innovative SIP integration with Rauland-Borg's Responder 5 Nurse Call system and Stryker's Smart Bed Monitoring for seamless communications between nurses, patients as well as bed status alerts.
• The Polycom VVX 1500 business media phone with integrated touch screen-based SureScript DiamondPhone e-prescription application, developed by Dr. Andrew Diamond - this application eliminates hand-written prescriptions, delivering efficiency and cost savings between doctors and pharmacies.

"We're excited to be a part of the Polycom Connected Health demo at HIMSS10," said Andrew Diamond, M.D. "Our innovative phone-centric solution for medical records, e-prescribing, and multi-office audiovisual communications seamlessly integrates with the open platform of the Polycom VVX 1500. Integrations such as this open up the market for new and innovative ways of communicating within the healthcare industry."

All products featured in the Polycom connected healthcare demonstration are available and shipping today. Polycom is also providing its wireless telephones to the HIMSS Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) showcase for the second consecutive year.

Polycom Grant Assistance Program

With these and other Polycom systems, Polycom supports caregiver communication, telemedicine, medical education and administrative needs in healthcare organizations. Additionally, our solutions qualify for funding like that provided in the Recovery Act, enabling healthcare organizations to optimize provider resources, overcome distance restrictions to care, and provide ROI through decreased travels costs and efficiencies of operation. Polycom grant experts use the Polycom 7-Step Grant Assistance Process to help healthcare organization easily navigate the complex funding environment.

About the Polycom Open Collaboration Network
Polycom's integration efforts with its partners support Polycom's Open Collaboration Network strategy, providing an open and interoperable collaboration solution that gives customers greater flexibility and investment protection for their UC environment. By working with leading unified communications platform providers, Polycom is able to deliver its productivity-enhancing and cost-saving telepresence, video and voice collaboration products as an integrated part of core unified communication environments, making the technologies easily accessible as part of the everyday workflow within a comprehensive solution that is easy to deploy and manage.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. For more information, visit www.polycom.com.

SOURCE: Polycom, Inc.