By Roger Sands

Decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) are becoming much more popular. Supporting this trend, and the important healthcare information provided by trials, requires healthcare professionals to have reliable and secure WiFi networks available at all times. Here is how to set up optimized networks, and use WiFi automation for cost-effective maintenance.

How to set up a strong WiFi experience
While DCTs take place at least partly in patient homes, it’s common for researchers and other healthcare professionals to be based in one or more central locations. The WiFi networks in these locations are under the supervision of healthcare IT teams, and must be top-notch to support research goals. Any issues, like network downtime or interference, can cause expensive delays and frustrate users.

Follow these steps to ensure your building has the best WiFi network:
1. Site survey. If you are moving into a new building, performing a site survey is an important step. This survey will identify any possible areas of network interference and determine where to best install access points. Even if there is an existing network onsite, a site survey is still required. There’s no guarantee that an existing network design will support healthcare needs and devices. Similarly, if researchers have been in the same building for years, but there’s been a change in the number and types of devices connected to the network, and/or in office layout, the site should be re-surveyed. It might be necessary to update the network design to better accommodate current utilization.

2. Infrastructure. Not all infrastructure supports all user needs. Everything from access points, switches, and controllers must be selected to support the healthcare professionals depending on the network. Make sure all infrastructure is purchased and upgraded with this in mind.

3. SSIDs. Once the network infrastructure is up-and-running, establish multiple SSIDs to ensure security. A good rule is to have one SSID, or network, for employees (this will be the most secure), one for guests, and one as a catch-all for all other uses, including IoT devices. All patient communication and data storage should take place on the employee SSID.

The technologies needed for decentralized clinical trials
The healthcare WiFi network must support:
- Laptops, tablets, and mobile phones used by all onsite professionals
- Telehealth appointments
- All other video calls
- Data retrieval from remote monitoring devices worn by patients
- Data storage of outcome assessments and patient reports
- Patient portals

In other words, these networks lean towards data-intensive utilization. This requires them to be robust. How do you keep them that way? By following best practices for network maintenance and optimization:

- Constant visibility: there should be no network mysteries; IT should know exactly what is on the network and how the network is being utilized
- Consistent testing: network tests such as connectivity, performance, and security tests should be run on a scheduled basis for the best insights
- Remote visibility and troubleshooting: it’s common for network specialists to be responsible for multiple sites; providing teams with remote network access reduces travel delays and costs

Networks are dynamic and cannot be left to function on their own. They require proactive oversight if optimal performance is to be achieved and maintained. Without the support of WiFi automation solutions, this is an all-consuming, full-time job for IT professionals.

The benefits of WiFi automation for network maintenance and optimization
Millions of data packets travel throughout a WiFi network every second. Maintaining a network that is reliable and optimized requires someone, or something, to have the ability to analyze every single one of those packets in real-time. This analysis delivers insight into real-time and long-term behavioral and performance trends. Without these insights, the network cannot be maintained to meet healthcare needs.

WiFi automation solutions automate the maintenance and optimization of WiFi networks. Specifically, they automate the detection, notification, and mitigation of network issues through real-time packet analysis. They serve as eyes and ears for healthcare IT professionals, ensuring that IT teams receive the alerts and insights they need to promote strong WiFi networks.

These solutions:
- Constantly analyze all activity on the network ecosystem. This includes activity from connected devices, infrastructure, and both WiFi and non-WiFi sources of interference.
- Proactively alert IT to problems in real-time before problems have a chance to grow
- Automatically identify the root cause of issues and suggest solutions for faster problem solving
- Provide remote troubleshooting, so IT can resolve network issues without having to travel onsite
- Consistently run network tests (following a schedule established by IT) so that issues can be identified and resolved before users are impacted
- Easily scale, whether 500 or 50,000 devices need to be analyzed

With WiFi automation, network maintenance is no longer manual and reactive, but automatic and proactive. IT professionals are supported with the insights they need to significantly reduce resolution times and the overall number of network issues. At the same time, healthcare professionals are supported with access to a critical resource: the reliable WiFi network they need to successfully run a decentralized clinical trial.

About the author: Roger Sands is the CEO and co-founder of Wyebot.