Aug 22, 2017Security systems technology company CriticalArc, a global technology firm, has partnered with Connexient to integrate its offerings with Connexient's Indoor Mapping and Navigation solution. The company is offering Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon technology as part of its safety systems for the health-care market. The solution will allow hospitals to provide both wayfinding and safety and security services for their patients and personnel.
Critical Arc, headquartered in Australia, provides a product known as SafeZone, which universities and hospitals can use for emergency services. The system employs GPS data from a user's smartphone to provide an individual's location in the event of an emergency. Users—such as security personnel, students or faculty members—can download the SafeZone mobile-alerting app on their smartphone, and the SafeZone Command system software in use by the school or hospital would then capture their call for help and identify the alert's location. The SafeZone Team app would issue alerts to security officers, along with a map of the campus or hospital, so that they can quickly respond.
The system is designed to be easy to use, the company reports. Even if an individual does not speak the local language, he or she can simply press the alert button, and a request for help would be received and acknowledged.
The company launched its technology in Australia approximately five years ago, and has expanded its offerings globally with an office in Denver, Colo., as well as in the United Kingdom and Bahrain. In the United States, its technology has been adopted predominantly by colleges and universities.
GPS positioning works well for many purposes, explains Glenn Farrant, CriticalArc's co-founder and CEO, since it can help to identify which part of campus an individual is in at the time of the alert, or in which building. However, GPS does not work indoors, and other location services built into smartphones are not so precise that responders would know, for instance, the specific room in which that individual is located—or, in some cases, on which floor.
Connexient serves the health-care market with beacon technology-based solutions that are currently in use by about 23 health-care networks throughout the United States. Its solution, known as MediNav, helps individuals navigate the complex environments of hospitals, and is used both by employees and by the public who visit a hospital, explains Geoff Halstead, Connexient's chief product officer.
The company supports beacons from a variety of vendors throughout a facility. Phones or tablets running the MediNav application receive transmissions from those beacons and forward each beacon's ID to the software, indicating its location. App users can view their own location in the form of a blue dot on a map of the facility, then navigate their way to a requested destination, such as the imaging department or a rest room.
Many of the company's customers, Halstead says, have indicated that they would like to expand their beacon technology use to address safety and security use cases and wayfinding. Hospitals typically used wired or wireless calling systems for such scenarios as a health emergency or a staff member being threatened. In the case of a wired system, that requires workers to find and trigger an alert mounted within the vicinity. Wireless systems require that staff members wear a badge or fob they can access. The partnership with CricticalArc now allows hospitals to offer emergency response with an app on a user's phone, leveraging the Connexient beacons that are installed around the facility (already in place for wayfinding, or installed specifically for the security purpose).
Using SafeZone with MediNav beacon technology enables security teams to view specifically where an alert call was placed, not only in GPS-based terms but with location accuracy within 1 to 2 meters (3.3 to 6.6 feet). The software then displays the individual's location specific to a particular floor and room.
"With Connexient's abilities," Farrant says, "we can do things like provide people with the route to evacuate a building." They could simply use the app to view where the closest exit is located, for instance, as well as the route to reach it.
Many customers using the integrated solution are likely to be those already using, or planning to use, the MediNav solution for wayfinding purposes. "The first killer app has happened to be patient experience," Halstead says. But whether they adopt the SafeZone application before or after deploying MediNav, they could be integrated into a single solution.
With the Connexient partnership, CriticalArc hopes to move into the health-care market in the United States and beyond. Connexient is a health-care-focused solution, but it could also be used in other sectors, Halstead says, such as higher education, government or corporate campuses. He adds that Connexient's customers are now in discussions with Connexient and CricitalArc to adopt the SafeZone solution with MediNav.
