Summit Contributes to Wi-Fi Alliance White Paper

In February, the Wi-Fi Alliance released a white paper entitled "Wi-Fi in Healthcare". The focus of the paper is how to deploy and manage Wi-Fi effectively in a hospital. Summit VP of Engineering Chris Bolinger was a significant contributor to the paper.

"As we discuss in the paper, most devices on hospital Wi-Fi networks are computing devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones," says Bolinger. "The next wave of Wi-Fi devices will be medical devices so that hospitals can provide better support for EMRs and clinical information systems (CIS), deliver better patient care, improve clinical workflow, and even help speed patient recovery time."

Putting patient-care devices on a hospital Wi-Fi network involves careful planning and rigorous testing. A typical hospital is rife with challenges to reliable Wi-Fi connectivity. Those challenges include:

• Numerous RF interference sources, especially in the 2.4 GHz frequency band where most of today's Wi-Fi devices and networks operate
• Building materials that reflect or absorb Wi-Fi signals
• The prevalence of human bodies, which absorb Wi-Fi signals
• The need for mobility, or a continuous network connection for a device in motion, with high levels of security