Do you know
anyone who doesn’t use a smartphone? Nearly half of all adults in the United
States now own at least one “smart” mobile device, and it won’t be long before
those without are in the minority. So what does that mean for the way we work, and in particular how clinicians work in a healthcare setting? Many doctors and nurses use smartphones in their personal lives, but few have the same technology available to support their work. In fact, they often still use landlines, pagers and PDAs – technology that was obsolete long ago in most workplaces – to communicate with their colleagues.
Get ready for a change. The consumerization of healthcare IT is coming, and it’s about to revolutionize not only the way clinicians communicate but also how they care for patients. As mHealth delivers comprehensive, integrated healthcare solutions, traditional boundaries will inevitably break down. The result: onsite, offsite, any time, anywhere communication, collaboration and access to information.
Clinicians who are accustomed to having maps, weather, news and the latest viral video at their fingertips in their personal lives want the same timely and reliable access to information when treating patients. That includes medical reference apps such as Epocrates as well as access to patients’ electronic medical records (EMR).
Healthcare organizations that embrace these inevitable changes are moving in the smart direction, improving quality and efficiency, reducing costs and meeting governmental requirements for meaningful use of EMR. More important is the ability to focus on their primary mission of caring for patients. Other benefits will likely include higher job satisfaction and lower turnover among their staff.
I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. Robust privacy and security features are integral to the successful transition of smartphones into the clinical workplace. And the challenge of working within a hospital’s existing wireless network is not for the faint of heart.
Fortunately, Voalte has spent the past four years working through these issues at some of the nation’s top hospitals. As we start Q2 of 2013, I’m pleased to announce we experienced record-breaking growth of 280 percent over Q1 last year, with 18 new hospitals signed on to implement Voalte solutions.
The foundation of our exponential growth is our stellar executive team, made up of the most talented professionals in their respective fields. In my new role as president of Voalte, I’m looking forward to working with this team and our entire staff as we continue to lead hospitals in the smart direction.
I am thrilled to have joined Voalte as VP of Product and Alliance Management. As the leader of the Product Management team, my primary role is to make sure we build the right product, to be available at the right time, and designed in the right way to deliver a cost-effective, compelling communication solution for caregivers and support staff. Just as mathematicians can’t live without a calculator, we want clinicians to feel the Voalte empowered smartphone is the best tool to help them deliver a high level of patient safety and quality of care. Of course, no one piece of equipment is a silver bullet that solves every problem, but ultimately we want to deliver an increasingly valuable and powerful tool that is reliable, efficient and – most importantly – effective. 
As we grow,
Voalte faces a common challenge: how to expand an already impressive
engineering team quickly, without sacrificing quality. 
If you or a family member has ever been admitted to a hospital, you know how important nurses are. They take care of us when we’re most vulnerable, and comfort us with a smile when we’re in an unfamiliar place and facing an uncertain future.
As a writer at Voalte, I have the opportunity to work with our marketing team, software engineers, salespeople and support specialists (or BFFs, as we fondly refer to them). It’s especially a pleasure to spend time with our on-staff nurses, who bring a unique perspective to the products we build and the services we offer. For National Nurses Week, I sat down with Melissa Ross, Clinical Nurse Lead, and Kate Cotroneo, BFF, and asked them about their experiences as hospital nurses.
Every Chief
Information Officer I know works hard to meet their hospitals’ needs and create
a positive experience for patients. After all, patients are a hospital’s most
important “customer.” Few CIOs, however,
seem to view nurses in the same light. 
I’m in San Francisco this week at HealthBeat 2013, a new event that’s exploring “smart hospitals” and “smart practices” to help healthcare decision-makers identify the technologies transforming the industry. Trey Lauderdale moderated a session with Julie Vilardi, RN, MS, Executive Director of Clinical Informatics and Strategic Projects at Kaiser Permanente, and Darren Dworkin, Senior VP and CIO at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Here are some highlights:
“It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.” – Steve Jobs
It’s amazing how history repeats itself. 
As Voalte has grown, our customers’ needs have grown as well. In the early years, many customers believed in our vision, but hesitated to jump in and implement new smartphone technology throughout their hospitals. Instead, we typically started with small trials of 30 or 50 smartphones in one or two units. After much testing, training and support, we would gradually expand to other units as caregivers and IT staff became comfortable with the new technology and workflow.
It’s an exciting time in the mobile health space. 
American companies are performing fairly well, despite high unemployment, a weak economy, slow job growth and stagnant wages. The stock market also has performed well recently, with corporate revenue growth mostly stagnant but earnings and profits on track or exceeding expectations.
That’s what Craig Federighi, Sr. VP of Software Engineering at Apple, said about iOS 7, and I completely agree. I was at WWDC in San Francisco when Apple unveiled iOS 7, the latest version operating system for the iPhone and iPad. Here are my thoughts on the most exciting changes:
With our company based in beautiful Sarasota, Florida, the Voalte team enjoys over 300 days of sunshine each year and some of the world’s most magnificent beaches. Our staff is an active group: We run, play volleyball, bike, do yoga on the beach and jump the waves on kite boards. Product Manager Alex Brown recently organized a fiercely competitive bi-weekly kickball game at the park behind our new office. 
Have you noticed that the personal phone you carry is light years more advanced than the device you depend on for complex clinical communication? 
The rewards of BYOD sound so sweet: Just imagine the funds you can save on mobile devices if employees bring their own smartphones to work! Think of the savings on your cellular plan!
To simplify communication for busy hospital nurses, some mHealth companies believe the answer lies in “hands-free” devices. By wearing a voice badge, they say, nurses are free to talk even when their hands are busy.
When Voalte teamed up with American Nurse Today on our first 
One of the first questions I ask hospital employees is, “What kind of phone do you use for your personal communication?” About 99 percent of the time, they name one of the latest smartphones. In other words, most people abandoned legacy-style brick and flip phones years ago. Yet in healthcare, the industry-standard wireless handsets continue to provide the same, old limited functionality: They only make phone calls. 
