Physicians and clinical staff remotely monitor real-time data from intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) devices
THE COMPANY
The German-based international medical technology provider inomed develops groundbreaking biomedical instruments.
With its intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) devices, doctors can monitor a patient’s nerve activity continuously during surgery, reducing patient risks and providing targeted treatment.
Like other competitive technology companies, inomed constantly strive to innovate and provide new sources of value to its healthcare customers. To that end, the mobile trend has become increasingly important.
“Mobility within the hospital is going to become more and more important for our customers and users,” said inomed Head of Development Joerg Wipfler.
THE CHALLENGE
The company needed to provide an overview of patients’ neurophysiological activities, so medical professionals could remotely monitor its IONM equipment from an iPad.
“The iPad is the number one tablet, and because it is the most popular device, it has been the first choice for our newly developed product,” Wipfler said.
THE SOLUTION
After considering developing its own app in-house, inomed instead turned to Netop, a global provider of secure remote access software solutions.
For several years, inomed had been using Netop on its IONM systems, and knew that Netop had recently introduced Netop Mobile for iOS: an app that provides remote system support while on the move.
Netop worked closely with inomed to develop a modified version of its iOS remote desktop app, Remote Viewer, then helped inomed launch it.
“The inomed Remote Viewer is based on Netop Mobile for iOS,” said Chris Twyman, Global Solutions Manager at Netop. “We worked closely with inomed to deliver the required modifications according to their specifications, and the app was published to Apple’s App Store within the agreed timeframe.”
In addition to neuromonitoring, inomed Remote Viewer is also useful in other applications, such as training, conferences and trade shows.
RESULTS
As a result, inomed was able to avoid the expense of in-house development, while benefiting from the expertise Netop demonstrates in developing secure, scalable, reliable remote access solutions.
With inomed Remote Viewer, hospital personnel can now remotely track the neuromonitoring signals recorded on an inomed IONM device, in real-time.
Also, inomed Remote Viewer can easily adapt to country-specific requirements and operating concepts for intraoperative monitoring. For example, in the United States (a healthcare market into which inomed would like to expand), neuromonitoring is organized as an external service provided by clinic neurophysiologists, who work with clinics throughout the country.
According to Wipfler, this approach – remotely supervising and consulting multiple hospitals with various neuromonitoring cases – is ideal for inomed technology and will be a promising market for solutions such as Remote Viewer.