Wacom Interactive Pen Display helps saving Money at Health Centre

The patients of Valley Regional Imaging, a full-service centre, offering CT, MRI, ultrasound, radiography, fluoroscopy, mammography, and bone densitometry examinations in Fayetteville, NC (USA), won’t find ballpoint pens and paper forms at this facility. Instead, their data is being recorded on Wacom’s interactive pen display. This electronic technology expedites registration workflow, reduces a variety of operational expenses.When a patient arrives for a check-up, the centre’s receptionist looks up the patient’s data in the RIS, displaying all associated documents and forms  - typically 30 to 40  – that the registration clerk can select .

Once checked in, the patient is invited to a cubicle and either enters demographic data or confirms that the existing RIS information on the form is correct. Patients can make modifications themselves or ask the clerk to do it for them, and they sign the form using the electronic signature box and an interactive pen.The centre tracked cost savings. From January 2010 to July 2010, when the former RIS was being used, the administrative cost to process 19,694 patients was $66,960. From August 2010 to May 2011, 31,504 patients were processed at a cost of $26,778. The cost of processing a patient dropped from $3.40 per patient to 85 cents.

“While many costs seem small, they all add up and contribute to the return on investment for purchasing the RIS,” says executive director Rhonda Mayorga, PhD. “Our business has been streamlined, and as an added plus, our operations are greener with respect to environmental impact.” Read the full story at Aunt Minnie’s.

iPads for pilots: finger or pen input are just natural

United Airlines have announced that it is converting to paperless flight decks and deploying 11,000 iPads to all United and Continental pilots. The electronic flight bags (EFB) replace paper flight manuals, providing pilots with paperless aeronautical navigational charts through an iPad app.

This example of one of the world’s top companies shows that traditional way of using a computer are a thing of the past. Interacting with the digital world ist best done by using either your finger or a dedicated pen, such as Wacom’s Bamboo Stylus. View United Airline’s full press release here.

Simplify medical presentations with Wacom interactive pen displays

The Radiology department of the Klinikum Niederrhein equipped its operating theatres with Wacom Cintiq 21UX interactive pen displays to present clinical discussions of cases to other doctors. As the Radiology department is spread across four sites in the vicinity of Duisburg, Dinslaken and Oberhausen in Germany it was very important to digitise the process of transferring images between the sites, so the diagnostics presentations can take place entirely on the digital system.

Survey proves good future prospects for signature tablets in retail.

EHI is a scientific institute of the retail industry. The 550 members of EHI include international retail companies and their industry associations, manufacturers of consumer and capital goods, and various service providers. In a survey among big retail companies with more than 117,000 cashier systems in use, 49 % answered that they are investigating into using digital signature tablet such as Wacom’s STU series. Another 8 % are already using digital signature solutions. The survey covered companies in Germany and selected other European countries.

The interest in solutions for digital handwritten signature recognition is quite high. The main advantage of integrating signature tablets into the payment process is in the complete digitalization. Each slip can be captured and stored digitally rather than printing, collecting and archiving and transporting them to a central point. If needed, each transaction can be found easily with just one click.

For Wacom, this is a very positive outlook. The market bears a very good potential for our products, mainly because of economical and ecological aspects: digital signature solutions make workflows much more efficient and reduce costs. This guarantees a fast return on investment. Wacom’s STU signature tablets can be integrated into every system, be it small or really large.

Please read the original press release here:

Wacom Partner Chalkless Media receives 2011 Frankfurt Business Founder Award for for their innovative whiteboard software EasyChalk

Chalkless Media GmbH has been awarded the first place in the 2011 Frankfurt Business Founder Awards “Frankfurter Gründerpreis” for their innovative whiteboard software EasyChalk. EasyChalk will come to market in early June.  EasyChalk is a complete online software that can be used with any browser on all whiteboards and interactive media in class. The award, which is endowed with EUR 12,500 for the winner, and a certificate were presented by the head of economic affairs for Frankfurt, Councillor Markus Frank. Chalkless Media prevailed over four other finalists. “The 2011 Frankfurt Business Founder Award is a great honour for us. We are especially pleased that an educational product has won the award,” said Gabriele Maria Balsing one of the founders of Chalkless Media.

Chalkless Media, founded in November 2010, will soon launch their software product, EasyChalk, on to the market. This application was developed especially for the education sector; it can be used, for instance, to create presentations and content for interactive whiteboards as well as for all other interactive media running a browser.

Read the official press release here: http://chalkless-media.com/?lang=en

EasyChalk is a perfect interactive whiteboard software for Wacom´s PL interactive pen displays. The Wacom PL series has many advantages compared to classical interactive whiteboards.  A Wacom PL works like a “digital overhead projector”. The teachers can write with the digital pen directly on the screen of the Wacom PL while the whole content will then be projected with a video projector.

Unlike with an interactive whiteboard a teacher using a PL is facing the audience and not showing his back to the students. In addition, the projection size of an interactive pen display is not limited to the size of a whiteboard. This ensures that in classrooms and lecture halls all lesson content can be seen from any place in the room.  Have a look at how some schools use Wacom PLs:

http://youtu.be/Xyfs9zWhqAI

http://youtu.be/iMuVL79GTaQ

PL-2200 at the Paris Descartes University

Anne Jarry is teaching Tax and Accounting at the Paris Descartes University. PL has changed the way she teaches, as she can now actually use documents and handouts which are distributed to students. She is able to make notes directly on these, and she can add handwritten notes. This makes teaching sessions much more interactive than simply using PowerPoint slides or a handout displayed on screen. Teaching becomes much more vibrant.

Wacom Displays on EAGE in Vienna (23-26 May)

Wacom Europe GmbH is on display at this year’s EAGE (European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers) in Vienna. This  is the largest and most comprehensive geoscience event in the world and takes place from May 23 to 26 at the Reed Messe Wien.

Together with dGB, leading provider of seismic software and services, Wacom will demonstrate how the workflow of analysing seismic data can be streamlined and made more efficient. Tracing seismic faults directly on the screen is far quicker and more ergonomic, thus helping to cut the time when analysing seismic data.

To find out more visit us in Hall B, booth 2347. dGB has its booth in Hall A, stand 1614.

Taunton NHS uses Cintiq 21UX for Treatment Planning

Gary Bee, dosimetrist at the Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, has given us an account of the experience his hospital has made since acquiring a Wacom interactive pen display for radiotherapy treatment planning. This is what he writes:

“We installed a Cintiq 21UX interactive pendisplay on our Philips Pinnacle™ Radiotherapy Treatment Planning System (TPS) last month and have already experienced improvements to our processes. Contouring speed has significantly increased, especially when defining complex organs or target volumes.

It is useful to be able to rotate the display to match the orientation of diagnostic images. We were using a standard 18’’ monitor previously, the resolution and contrast improvement was immediately noticeable.

We have connected the Cintiq 21UX to a Pinnacle™ P3PC¹, it replaces the second monitor. When the pen approaches the surface of the tablet it takes over the function of the mouse. We have not yet setup the ExpressKeys, but have bound the DuoSwitch buttons on the Pen to Pinnacle™ commands.”

 

We installed a 21UX Pen Tablet on our Philips Pinnacle™, Radiotherapy Treatment Planning System (TPS) last month and have already experienced improvements to our processes.

Contouring speed has significantly increased, especially when defining complex organs or target volumes.

It is useful to be able to rotate the display to match the orientation of diagnostic images.

We were using a standard 18’’ monitor previously, the resolution and contrast improvement was immediately noticeable.

We have connected the 21UX to a Pinnacle™ P3PC¹, it replaces the second monitor. When the pen approaches the surface of the Tablet it takes over the function of the mouse.

We have not yet setup the ExpressKeys, but have bound the DuoSwitch buttons on the Pen to Pinnacle™ commands.

Healthcare: Consent via Wacom signature tablet

The German healthcare specialist Thieme Compliance is significantly improving the workflow within hospitals by combining innovative software with the unique signature tablet by Wacom. Obtaining the consent from patients before operating on them is essential. With E-ConsentPro, Thieme introduces a new, fully digitized and safe way of  signing the consent form. Signing it on Wacom’s signature tablet by hand is as secure as signing on paper. The unique features of Wacom’s STU-family help create an individual profile which can be stored with the document.

Wacom’s interactive pen display shortlisted for ATC Global Award

Jane’s has just announced the shortlist for the renowned ATC Global Award 2011: Wacom’s Cintiq 21UX interactive pen display is amongst the listed products! It has been selected for the category of  “Innovation”. The award winners will be named on the ATC Global 2011, taking place in Amsterdam from March 8 to 10th.

Over the last few years now the interactive pen display has found its way into airport towers and centres: innovative and visionary companies specialised in the development of air traffic management and air traffic control found that the Cintiq is the ideal way to help bridge the gap from traditional flight strips printed on paper to real time digital solutions, thus easing the way to change the ways air traffic controllers work. By moving away from paper to digital flight strips, the controllers’ workflow can be significantly enhanced, which is essential in order to meet the demands of an ever denser traffic in the skies effectively and safely.

To get an idea about the advantages of using an interactive pen display in ATC, download our most recent case study with the DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH.