Healthcare Connectivity and Medical Device Software from Tactiq

Healthcare Connectivity Development
Increasingly sophisticated medical equipment and the demands for efficiency and ease of use is driving the requirements for device connectivity to new levels. Some examples of these drivers and the areas Tactiq have worked in are:

- Dramatically increasing levels of patient diagnostic data, especially imaging.
- The need to link this data with patient and visit records.
- The drive for greater workflow efficiency, tight scheduling and patient throughput.
- The greater need for visit follow-up data and tracking treatment progress.
- Increasing number of portable devices needing to be linked to central data and review stores.
- Requirements for remote diagnostics and maintenance of high cost medical equipment.
- The drive for networked solutions using standards such as DICOM and HL7 and integration between PACS, RIS and other systems.

Tactiq's in-depth experience of all aspects of healthcare networking from both product development and system integration perspectives means that we can provide the right solution for healthcare networking requirements. This ranges from low cost wireless solutions to high performance, fully integrated systems. Tactiq understands that medical devices can not be developed in isolation and that the wider data requirements and operating environment need to be considered to ensure the product usability is optimised.

Networking Systems
Networking standards at all levels allow data exchange between systems which in principle enable distributed and integrated healthcare systems. In practice, however, different implementations may not work well together and systems are sometimes focussed on the technology rather than the needs of the user. Tactiq develop systems that support and enhance the needs of users, allowing them to perform their task more effectively and our experience and knowledge of healthcare networking means the systems we develop are flexible to work well with all manufacturers equipment.

Example technical challenges and solutions
Tactiq developed a tele-medicine system which transfers real-time video medical images and enables collaborative, remote working by allowing shared access to patient data, live video and audio between users. This had to be achieved using a bandwidth limited WAN connection. Tactiq used lossless compression for the medical images and lossy compression for the interaction video channels giving excellent performance and total fidelity for the diagnostic images. The system supports effective remote collaborative working with a low system cost.

Mobile medical systems require the same network facilities as fixed systems but there are practical problems with wired network access. Tactiq developed a wireless network solution for mobile MR systems to allow remote access giving substantial productivity benefits.

Although DICOM compliant systems can exchange images, they cannot always function as intended due to the nature of the images and data exchanged not meeting the expectations of the receiving station. Tactiq developed a flexible network layer which adapted the processing and formatting of medical data to the needs of the remote station ensuring smooth operation with a wide range of system combinations.

For more information or to discuss how we may be able to support you, please contact us.

We support the Healthcare, Automotive, Industrial and Defence markets.

Specific skill areas In depth knowledge of DICOM, HL7 and RIS. PACS systems integration expertise. Physical connectivity and driver stacks for Ethernet, USB, RS. Wireless solutions. Workflow optimisation. Remote equipment diagnostics.