Cisco has its eyes on healthcare in ANZ

Marina Freri
Tuesday, 20 September 2011 13:20

IT Industry - Strategy

The local branch of US giant communications and networking services provider, Cisco ANZ, has started to publish an online blog dedicated to the health industry in Australia and New Zealand and the associated technology.

Cisco aims to join the rush to supply technology for digital hospitals in Australia and New Zealand by hosting a series of feature stories on the future of emergency departments.

'Welcome to the first in a series of posts from the Cisco Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) healthcare team,' Cisco stated from its blog. 'We'll be providing regular news and insights from the region covering healthcare issues as well as the role of technology in supporting them'.

The publication of a health-dedicated blog comes in a fruitful period for IT companies seizing long-term ICT deals with Australian health departments and facilities. Last month, BT signed a deal with Perth Fiona Hospital to install and manage communications infrastructures; while today Hewlett-Packard announced it had signed an ICT services contract with Adelaide's new Royal Hospital.

However, the Cisco ANZ move to host a series of blog posts on healthcare seems to resonate with the company's US headquarters decision to create a Cisco Healthcare day last July, in a bid to promote its Connected Health solutions.

According to its blog post, Cisco head of the healthcare practice team, Brendan Lovelock, has recently chaired a conference, hosted by the Health Informatics Society of Australia, on the future of emergency departments.

Commenting on the conference, Cisco claimed that effective communication would be fundamental to the smooth running of often over-crowded emergency departments.

'Healthcare specialists indicate that technology is already impacting the way that clinicians are working within emergency departments,' Cisco's blog reported. 'Clinicians are starting to talk to patients remotely using video conferencing infrastructure as well as accessing pre-existing medical histories or patient test results prior to consultations'

Cisco ANZ promised more posts on the Australian and New Zealand healthcare systems would follow; deals with health operators of this region may also follow.