Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics has released a major software upgrade for the RAPIDComm Data Management System. Version 5.0 of the informatics solution centrally manages Siemens in vitro diagnostics analysers and operators at the point-of-care (POC).
The upgrade encompasses Siemens’ POC Ecosystem™ which aims to improve a POC coordinator’s ability to meet challenges across a number of care components including device management, compliance reporting, remote monitoring and mobile access.
New Cross Hospital, part of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, is one of the first to implement RAPIDComm V5.0. Lorna Wood, Biomedical Scientist at the hospital states, “We recently upgraded to V5.0 so our 14 Siemens POC systems benefit from the latest version of RAPIDComm. The platform creates centralised management of our RAPIDSystems and provides us with features to streamline workflow while providing great usability and reliability. The device-workload and material-usage reports are helping us to identify supply consumption which helps greatly with reporting.“
The new Device Workload Reports help customers manage their consumable inventory by identifying the number of patient and quality control (QC) samples processed by their POC devices. Along with this, the new system helps record electronic reviews of patient and QC results and provides the ability to document instrument operator training and assessment information.
The latest version of the RAPIDComm System also includes the RAPIDComm Web Application, which allows POC coordinators to quickly view the status of their POC instruments and troubleshoot issues from a handheld device. It also enables users who manage blood gas analysers to remotely view and control their instruments directly from an iPad, regardless of where they are located.
Additional functionality offered by the upgrade is an interface to the Personalised Education Plan (PEP) Administrator. This lets coordinators create and assign custom internet-based quizzes to instrument operators, which must be successfully completed for training and certification. The RAPIDComm System can also automatically re-certify operators and centrally manage and download their IDs and passwords to the appropriate POC testing instruments, ensuring secure access. This feature can help POC coordinators reduce the manual steps involved with the operator certification process.
“RAPIDComm V5.0 is more than just a software upgrade, it adds a whole new level of support to customers to help effectively manage the POC service,” states Afia Boamah, Point of Care Product Manager at Siemens Healthcare. “The Ecosystem™ feature makes it possible to manage the instrumentation and consumables for hundreds of testing devices throughout a hospital, helping to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.”
