In a post-COVID world, launches and enhancements to touchless operation, voice recognition, and mobile apps are expected from all of the OEMs. These will be geared toward limiting contact with the devices and expanding functionality of remote operation for those in the office or a public work setting who are concerned about the spread of COVID-19.
HP is hitting the ground running with the launch of its HP Healthcare Edition Products, announced October 14. “As our healthcare systems continue to battle the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and brace for a second wave colliding with the flu this fall, the issues of patient safety and clinician burnout have intensified,” said Daniel Colling, RN , Global Head Healthcare Industry Solutions & Practice at HP Inc. “With this new portfolio, we are reinventing healthcare technology to put the doctor, clinician, and patient needs before anything else.”
Printers and MFPs may have been overlooked at this point as products that are shared in the development of infection policies and protocols when, in fact, studies have shown that printers and mobile devices are often highly contaminated with pathogenic bacteria and viral pathogens. To combat this, HP’s new Healthcare Edition MFP keyboards and touch-enabled control panels are designed to be disinfected regularly, withstanding up to 10,000 times industry-standard germicidal wipes—helping to reduce the risk of infection and pathogen transmission. High-touch areas of the devices also support removable covers that can be sterilized daily in an autoclave up to 134° Celsius.
HP is yet to make clear, however, if these keyboards, control panels, and removable covers are part of a newly developed healthcare hardware device or are available as upgrades that can be purchased and installed on existing HP hardware devices. Likewise, it’s not entirely clear if there is a new line of HP hardware devices specifically developed for the healthcare space, or if customers can upgrade via firmware or software on already existing models for them to be considered part of the healthcare portfolio.
HP has also partnered with Clorox Healthcare and Zebra in product development on several fronts. The development of an app in conjunction with Clorox can be added and accessed on devices, and details how to clean and disinfect the device while also providing educational materials, tools, and resources that can be downloaded to mobile phones. HP’s partnership with Zebra provides the HP Advance mobile app on Zebra’s point of care TC52-HC hand-held touch computer. Providers can walk-up to any HP Healthcare Edition MFP, authenticate, and release critical patient documents without having to touch the device. HP’s partnership with Zebra also ties into smarter wristbands to help ensure IDs are associated with the right patients to combat challenges with positive patient identification.
With the rise of telehealth and telemedicine, patients need the same security at home as they do in person. Cyber-attacks on the healthcare industry are also seen as very lucrative to hackers (45% of ransomware attacks are targeted at the healthcare industry). To that end, cloud-based HP Print Security Advisory Services and HP Security Manager provide patient data protection to all HP and Zebra devices. EN/IEC 60601-1-2 certification ensures these devices can be used and won’t interfere with the broad spectrum of biomedical devices connected via Wi-Fi as well as implanted devices such as pacemakers.
The launch of these healthcare offerings gives HP’s portfolio further gravitas in a post-COVID environment. In fact, HP’s portfolio already included several touch-free solutions for print devices, including HP Advance mobile release, apps for HP Workpath (Touchfree MFP and Touchless Print), and HP Accessibility Assistant (support for 170 voice commands in several languages). We expect the other OEMs to follow suit, putting aside more marketing spend to highlight existing touch-free offerings as well as funds for the research and development budget to further enhance offerings in touch-free and sterilizing technology to differentiate from each other in our new normal.