Imagine arriving at a major medical center with a life-threatening medical condition. Imagine now that this facility has no paging or cell phone capability. How will the right doctor be alerted that you need treatment to save your life?

The Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center's Mobile Health Innovation Team are working to avoid a scenario such as this in austere, deployed hospital environments.

Earlier this year, TATRC together with the Cyber Center of Excellence Experimental Division, Regional Training Site-Medical, Ft. Gordon, and the 75th Combat Support Hospital hosted a technology demonstration to showcase a digital paging device that can be used in combat support hospital settings at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia.

The team demonstrated a commercial digital voice-over Internet Protocol badge combined with an NSA-approved, wireless capability for tactical environments. Demonstration attendees were able to observe the voice-activated digital paging system in use, allowing hands-free communications throughout the hospital, a real-life operational setting.

Called, "Addressing Documented Gaps in Internal CSH Communication & Recall with a Garrison Optimized COTS Solution Leveraging Wi-Fi & Vocera Mobile Health," the event demonstrated how use of a commercially available technology can help deployed hospital staff avoid instances where members of a clinical team are taken away from providing care to retrieve another care provider.

"With the assistance of the Cyber Center of Excellence, Experimentation Division, we continue to seek technical solutions to answer real world medical needs," said Edward Kensinger, TATRC MHIC project manager.