Wireless Solution

Wireless Solution

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The Solution: In 2005, the NIH announced that it would install the InnerWireless Medical-grade Wireless Utility, a wireless broadband infrastructure designed to distribute wireless signals throughout the facility and support a full range of wireless devices and future plans to utilize the system for 802.11 wireless data and two-way radios for first responder communications.

InnerWireless distributes all of the center's wireless services on a unified, managed system. This rationally engineered approach helped the NIH find a more cost-effective solution to its communications challenges, eliminating the need to install and maintain multiple, discrete wireless systems.

InnerWireless was a subcontractor on this project to prime contractors SRA International, Inc., of Fairfax, VA clients in national security, civil government, healthcare and public health, and has long history of support for wireless technologies at the NIH.

With InnerWireless installed, the center had the capability to add numerous applications, including wireless patient monitoring devices, asset management and tracking (RFID), and personal paging devices that allow patients to directly contact clinical staff. These applications and devices can be deployed without the need to install a separate system for each application, and meet the center's future wireless needs.

Background: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) had been dedicated to advancing medicine through research since it was founded in 1887. In August 2004, construction was completed on the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center (CRC), a 242 bed hospital and research center, which totals 870,000 square feet. The new center is connected to the existing Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center to form the NIH Clinical Center, which is the world's largest clinical research complex. The CRC is designed to be state-of-the-art and flexible to bridge the gap between laboratory research and life-saving clinical applications.

The Challenge: The NIH realized that one of the best ways to integrate the research and clinical sides was to implement wireless devices that allowed researchers and caregivers to communicate with each other seamlessly and without interruption. More specifically, the NIH wanted to deploy wireless interpersonal communications devices, such as government-issued BlackBerry devices, to enable immediate communication among the CRC staff.

The hurdle the NIH faced was ensuring that radio frequency signals reached each staff member's interpersonal communication device, regardless of where they were in the building. Concrete, glass and other building materials can distort and block radio frequency signals, making wireless communication spotty or even unattainable.

Download the National Institutes of Health Success Story

RFID Solution

RFID
Florida State Attorney's 15th Judicial Circuit

The Solution: Under the leadership of State Attorney Barry Krischer, the 15th Judicial Circuit began seeking a vendor that possessed the RF expertise to engineer a RFID system that would ensure coverage and accuracy, as will as customize a tag to fit the limited dimensions of the case files. Integrating the monitoring platform and applications with STAC also was critical.

InnerWireless conducted a site survey to identify and address any RF challenges and determined that a passive RFID approach represented the most efficient and cost-effective solution. It then began engineering a frequency and the EPCglobal-enables antenna and tags. InnerWireless also teamed with ThingMagic, leading provider of RFID readers and sensors, to precisely deploy the readers throughout the building to achieve maximum coverage and results. Lastly, the PanGo software application was integrated with the STAC case tracking system, offering a Web-based view of file locations.

Now, attorneys and staff can conveniently and easily locate files from their own computers. With a few key strokes, the file's location appears on a digital floor plan, and the filename can even be selected to reveal further information, such as the amount of time the documents have resided in that location. This has reduced the amount of disruptions the staff experience during their day, which had led to more productivity and streamlined workflow. Court proceedings also are no longer delayed because of time-consuming searches for files.

"After installing PanGo, we saw immediate workflow improvements, and we no longer spend hours rummaging around for files that are urgently and unexpectedly needed in court," said Dan Zinn, Chief Information Officer for the Office of the State Attorney's 15th Judicial Circuit. "InnerWireless' engineering and RF expertise was indispensable in helping us select the best technology for our use case. They provided a turnkey, engineered solution to meet our unique needs, and PanGo's flexible and scalable platform support a full range of RTLS/RFID technologies, which will support our needs as we find opportunities to further our tracking capabilities."

The 15th Judicial Circuit would like to expand PanGo's use to span more floors to track laptops and court audio/visual equipment, as well as include case files for the Misdemeanor and County Court Divisions. It also is evaluating that implementation of more antennas to monitor a file's movement on a more granular level to verify, for example, whether a file is leaving or entering the building.

Background: The Florida State Attorney's 15th Judicial Circuit manages approximately 18,000 active felony cases for Palm Beach County. Information pertaining to these cases is electronically stored in a database called STAC, a proprietary case tracking system. However, the 15th Judicial Circuit desired a solution to locate the physical files in real-time because at any given moment, a file could be summoned for use in court, causing multiple people to search for the documents for several hours, thus delaying court proceedings. 

The Challenge: The 15th Judicial Circuit originally believed that a bar-coding solution would alleviate inefficiencies, however upon further evaluation, it found that bar-coding systems couldn't pick up signals from a broad area or read multiple items at once-a must for the 15th Judicial Circuit because files are often piled on desks, spread out across departments and constantly traveling throughout the 45,000-square-foot, four-story facility.

After researching RFID as an alternative, the 15th Judicial Circuit determined it would be a more optimal solution, but a standard tag would not fit on a case file and would need to be customized.

Download the Florida State Attorney's 15th Judicial Circuit Success Story