By Roger Sands

Information and communication technology, telemedicine, medical IoT devices, and electronic medical records are just a few of the ways technology has transformed healthcare. Technological applications in healthcare like cutting-edge diagnostic tools, instant access to records, and internet-connected sensors are helping doctors to save lives, and they are here to stay. In 2017, 95 percent of all hospital types had certified electronic health record (EHR) technology, and reports show that the digital health market is expected to reach $206 billion by 2020.

Wi-Fi is a core necessity for the successful adoption of this technology. Apps, devices, and gadgets require a seamless connection to the network — a connection that can’t be limited by location. The usefulness of this technology lies in its ability to be used by anyone, anywhere, and its ability to share data and connect people in real time. This is true for healthcare professionals who often exist in a go-go-go world and don’t have time to track down information or visit a desk multiple times a day; and it is true for patients, who greatly benefit from inventions like remote patient monitoring, or platforms that enable easy communication with physicians to clear up questions on diagnoses, treatments, or procedures.

Everything from text messages to electronic record look-up to mobile patient safety devices and real-time virtual monitoring of vitals depends on strong and reliable Wi-Fi. Here are four reasons why Wi-Fi Assurance is critical for any healthcare setting, whether a hospital, rural clinic, or nursing facility.

Successful patient care. As stated above, many healthcare facilities now depend on Wi-Fi for many things from patient intake to patient monitoring and life-saving patient care. Wi-Fi Assurance is now mission-critical in ensuring patients’ health and safety. Assurance platforms proactively work to prevent any network degradation, and automatically alert IT to any possible issues. Network management is simplified and optimization is ensured so that technology continues supporting professionals and patients.

Optimization of Wi-Fi-connected devices. Every new application and medical device must operate at peak performance. The only way to know if this is happening is to capture and analyze data in real time. Wi-Fi Assurance solutions monitor all wirelessly connected devices, giving IT detailed information on exactly what is connected to the network, and how every device is operating. They even allow for historical data regarding that device and how it performed over the past day, week or month. Information is captured 24/7, and if any device malfunctions, IT receives the information automatically. This capability not only saves IT from having to manually search through logs of data, it ensures that healthcare facilities and professionals can trust that the technology they rely on is optimized. These devices cannot fail and with Wi-Fi Assurance, they won’t.

100 percent Vvisibility into the Wi-Fi environment. We often complain about the Wi-Fi being down or slow, but the truth of the matter is that the Wi-Fi is more than just the Wi-Fi. There is an entire wireless ecosystem that must be monitored and managed, and any part of it could cause performance degradation. It includes back-end and front-end infrastructure, connected devices, nearby devices, and non-Wi-Fi connected devices like Bluetooth or even microwaves. It is known as the Radio Frequency (RF) Spectrum, and it’s necessary to understand how this entire spectrum is operating in order to truly have Wi-Fi Assurance. Anything on this spectrum — including nearby neighboring networks or hot spots — can impact a facility’s wireless network. If IT is going to solve network issues, they must be supported with a tool that knows everything about the environment, and can pinpoint the root cause of issues down to individual devices.

In addition, the RF Spectrum is dynamic. It isn’t enough to monitor the spectrum periodically; it must be analyzed 24/7 in order to truly capture all data, and allow IT to proactively resolve issues. This requires multiple radios to be constantly scanning the environment. If there are any problems, healthcare IT professionals need to be able to act quickly. There is no time to waste. Assurance solutions that analyze the entire environment ensure that IT has all necessary information to resolve issues before there are any negative impacts. This keeps things running smoothly and efficiently, allowing healthcare professionals to focus on patient care.

Remote Testing and Monitoring. Network issues can strike at any time, and might happen sporadically. Unless IT is directly monitoring the network like a remote client would when the problem strikes, it is incredibly time-consuming to lock down what caused the issue. Remote, continuous network tests change that. An Assurance solution equipped with this capability that can act like a remote client on the network can run tests without requiring constant input from IT, and test for any performance issues before the network is affected. If an issue is detected, the platform should automatically notify IT with the exact details on when the test failed, why it failed, and actionable suggestions for resolution.

Whether a clinic, nursing home, or hospital, healthcare facilities need to rapidly and proactively isolate anything that is impacting the Wi-Fi, because a poorly performing wireless network directly affects lifesaving and mission-critical apps, devices, and gadgets. Wi-Fi ecosystems are vast, dynamic environments that must be continuously monitored. With Wi-Fi Assurance, healthcare professionals can ensure that all wirelessly-connected technology operates in an optimized manner.

About the author: Roger Sands is the CEO of Wyebot, the leading data-analytics driven platform for mission critical Wi-Fi ecosystems.