Pilot Project to Assess the Usability and Accuracy of the Sonitor System in Tracking and Monitoring Portable Medical Equipment.
Largo, Florida and Alexandria, Virginia - February 26, 2007 - Sonitor Technologies, Inc., in conjunction with distributor Arrowpoint Corporation, announced today that the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (Fort Detrick, Maryland) has selected the Sonitor ultrasound indoor positioning system (IPS) for a pilot installation at the Uniformed Services Health Sciences University in Bethesda, MD. (The facility is co-located with the National Naval Medical Center.) This pilot installation will assess the usability and accuracy of the Sonitor system in tracking and monitoring portable medical equipment on one floor of a campus building.
"We are delighted that the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center has selected the Sonitor ultrasound IPS for such a prominent project," said Terry Aasen, President and CEO of Sonitor Technologies, Inc. "The ability to quickly and accurately locate moveable, medical equipment is one of the major problems facing medical facilities today. We are confident that the Uniformed Services Health Sciences University will quickly realize the benefits and advantages to using the Sonitor ultrasound IPS, and will build the business case, in terms of hard ROI numbers, for use throughout this campus and other U.S. Army medical locations."
Mr. Aasen continued, "This installation will demonstrate the capabilities of the Sonitor IPS system for tracking and preventing loss or misplacement of medical equipment, as well as showcase how our system can ultimately improve patient care and safety and streamline business processes. Moreover, we believe the installation at Uniformed Services Health Sciences University will provide an excellent model for tracking medical equipment at U.S. Army military installations around the world."
The Sonitor IPS is a robust, accurate, yet simple tracking solution that addresses the real-time location of moveable equipment and people in complex indoor environments, such as hospitals and other medical facilities. Its patented ultrasound technology ensures that the detectors interpret a Tag's signals with 100% room-level accuracy and without risk of interference from any environmental noise or other signals nor interfere with sensitive instruments, which is particularly important in a hospital or medical facility setting. The system is based on a unique and patented use of ultrasound for communications in air that identifies the position of any object or person in real-time.
Motion activated "Tags" will be attached to mobile equipment items on one floor of a campus building at the Uniformed Services Health Sciences University. The Tag transmits its unique identification signal using ultrasound waves as the object moves throughout the monitored area.
Detectors, using Sonitor's patented Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms, transmit signals in digital format via the existing wireless LAN at the University to a central computer unit that stores the information about the Tag's location and the time of the receipt of the Tag signal in a software program. This information will enable the Uniformed Services Health Sciences University staff to retrieve a Tag's position and/or movement and determine precisely by room where the tracked object with that specific Tag is located. Because the transmitted ultrasound signals cannot penetrate walls, the Sonitor Tag signals are impervious to eavesdropping from outside the room or building where they originate. Due to the simple and accurate location detection, only very small amounts of data need to be transmitted over the LAN, so the Sonitor IPS is considered being very network friendly.