UPMC and Alcatel-Lucent Team to Develop Next-generation Telemedicine Solution

The solution, expected to be ready for commercial launch in early 2013, will offer secure, real-time clinical encounters in a virtual “exam room” designed to fit the workflow of health care providers and the mobility of patients.  Using a secure Web portal, patients will have access to both scheduled and emergency care from any location at any time through a variety of mobile devices using real-time video and audio communication among multiple participants in multiple locations.  At the same time, the system will securely generate, retrieve and store patient data in a clinically relevant way.

“Advances in telecommunications technology and the widespread adoption of mobile devices have paved the way for eliminating the restrictions that bricks and mortar have placed on health care,” said Rebecca Kaul, president of UPMC’s Technology Development Center, who will co-manage the effort and help to oversee development teams in Pittsburgh and New Jersey. “By combining our clinical and technological expertise, UPMC and Alcatel-Lucent are poised to deliver on the promise of providing seamless care to patients that is only a click away.”

The platform is being developed along with Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent’s research arm, making use of advanced technologies such as immersive and cloud-based communications.

“The challenge involved in creating this next-generation telemedicine system is designing a true multi-point communication platform that allows everyone involved in the medical case to securely view the same data and medical records at the same time regardless of the communication device used,” said Sid Ahuja, Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, who will co-manage the initiative. “With cloud-based technologies, services and software applications are delivered from the Internet rather than a dedicated enterprise network in a single location, enabling a new level of medical collaboration and information sharing via secure real-time audio, video and data links.”

A national leader in the use of information technology, UPMC will consolidate its extensive telemedicine offerings on the new platform, with the goal of lowering costs and improving access to high-quality care.  Since 1997, UPMC has expanded its use of telemedicine into 16 service lines, including stroke care, cardiology, pathology, dermatology and ophthalmology. Its telemedicine network encompasses 19 facilities, both within and outside of UPMC, including ISMETT, UPMC’s transplant center in Italy, and UPMC Beacon Hospital in Ireland. UPMC also provides administrative support, business assistance and information technology services to hospitals, physicians and other medical professionals interested in telehealth services.

About UPMC
UPMC is a $9 billion global health enterprise with more than 50,000 employees headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., and is transforming health care by integrating more than 20 hospitals, 400 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, a health insurance services division, and international and commercial services. Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC is redefining health care by using innovative science, technology, and medicine to invent new models of accountable, cost-efficient, and patient-centered care. For more information on how UPMC is taking medicine from where it is to where it needs to be, go to external linkwww.UPMC.com.

About Alcatel-Lucent
The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leader in mobile, fixed, IP and Optics technologies, and a pioneer in applications and services. Alcatel-Lucent includes Bell Labs, one of the world's foremost centres of research and innovation in communications technology.

With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach.

The Company achieved revenues of Euro 16 billion in 2010. It is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

FreeWave Technologies and Rockwell Automation Join Forces to Address Growing Water Management Issues

2 May 2011 - FreeWave Technologies, a manufacturer of reliable, high-performance spread spectrum and licensed radios for critical data transmission, today announced a new initiative, in collaboration with Rockwell Automation, to design and implement a comprehensive SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system solution to tackle water municipality's growing issues in water management.

The problem: Water municipalities have water tanks that need to be kept full during peak usage times to keep up with increasing demands. Typically, a water tank is connected to a reservoir miles away via a pipeline, however, tank monitoring and pumping operations are being completed manually in many areas, creating numerous inefficiencies and cost constraints. To complicate matters, the main control rooms, the water reservoir and the water district headquarters are usually geographically dispersed.  In order to keep up with demands, water districts across the United States need ways to automate their water demand management and keep their investment low to make such a change feasible to end-users.

"In order to make this application work, the SCADA system needs to be able to monitor the water level in the tank, the line pressure throughout the pipeline and the flow rate when the pump is running, as well as control the drive that runs the pump," explains Ashish Sharma, chief marketing officer of FreeWave Technologies. "It also needs to have a Human Machine Interface (HMI) at the water district headquarters to provide monitoring and control of the entire system for the operators. Clearly, wireless communication is a must, but the system also needs to be very reliable, flexible and cost effective. Our customers are looking for a solution that is easy to deploy and maintain."

Because cost effectiveness and reliability are high priorities for public utility operators, both FreeWave and Rockwell Automation products are a natural fit for the water districts. The SCADA system consists of an Allen Bradley SLC5/05 PLC at the main control room, its PowerFlex 40 drive at the pump house with FreeWave's serial and serial IO radios connecting them together. The serial IO radios also allow the master Allen Bradley PLC to monitor pressure and flow rates throughout the pipeline as well as the water level in the tank. Along with the serial network, there also would be a pair of FreeWave Ethernet radios used to connect the SLC5/05 back to a Rockwell Automation PanelView Plus at the water district headquarters. Because multiple FreeWave radio networks can coexist at the same location, its FGR2-PE Ethernet radios are a trouble-free option. Typically, they would be used to link the Ethernet ports of the Allen Bradley SLC5/05 PLC and the Rockwell Automation PanelView Plus to provide seamless integration. "This allows for easy monitoring and control with real time updates of the entire system," Sharma says.

"With both Rockwell Automation and FreeWave products, it's easy to build a cost effective, yet very reliable SCADA system," he explained. "Because the FGR2-IO-IOE is a flexible wireless IO platform and a very reliable serial radio, it offers the ability to quickly and cost effectively add IO without having to add additional radios. This adds a level of flexibility that complements Rockwell Automation products perfectly."

About the FGR2 Series of FreeWave Radios:
Each member of the FGR2 Series of radios is fully backwards-compatible with earlier FGR radios and offers the lowest power consumption in the industry. The FGR2-CE-U is the serial radio option and the FGR2-IO-IOE Serial radio base provides a wireless platform for IO Expansion to any new or existing FGR serial network .The FGR2-PE offers users a second, switched Ethernet port as well as two serial ports to meet the demands of customers' wireless automation requirements. The future-proof combination of two serial ports and two switched Ethernet ports offers customers the ability to transition from serial to Ethernet data communication without having to replace their wireless communication hardware down the road, or operate both serial and Ethernet communication independently and simultaneously on the same platform. Additionally, each FreeWave FGR2 series radio is capable of transmitting data up to 60 miles line-of-sight (LOS).

About FreeWave Technologies
Founded in 1993, FreeWave Technologies manufactures reliable, high performing, lowest power consumption, spread spectrum and licensed radios for mission-critical data transmission.

FreeWave Technologies participates as an Encompass™ Product Partner in the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork™.  Through Encompass Product Partners, customers can quickly locate complementary products that best solve any application challenges. These products are critical components or connectivity solutions that extend and enhance Rockwell Automation installations.

About Rockwell Automation
Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world's largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, makes its customers more productive and the world more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., Rockwell Automation employs about 19,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.

Source: FreeWave Technologies