HP, Taiwan company show-off WiMax hospital station

Dan Nystedt

Hewlett-Packard Co. and Taiwanese WiMax service provider Global Mobile Corp. on Monday showed off a mobile WiMax station for use in hospitals, complete with a laptop PC, monitor and other gear.

HP wrote software for the mobile hospital station and is working with Taipei's Tri-Services General Hospital to explore further uses for the device. The station is designed for use by nurses, doctors and other attendants as they admit new patients and do rounds, to gather information electronically and transmit records instantly to a central database over a WiMax wireless broadband network.

Hardware from any PC company can be used for the base station itself, said Mingpey Chou, a manager at HP-Taiwan Ltd. HP created the software and has put together the hardware for the mobile WiMax station at a cost of around US$5,000 each, she said.

Once HP, Global Mobile and Tri-Services Hospital figure out more ways for the mobile WiMax station to be used in medical care, it will be sold to other hospitals in Taiwan, Chou said. There are no plans currently to export the device to the U.S. or other countries.

The concept, design and software of the mobile station were all created in Taiwan, she said.