By Tisa Murdock, Group Manager, EUC Healthcare Solutions and Farid Agahi, Sr. Business Strategist, VMware Healthcare
It is official! VMware Horizon View (both 5.1 and 5.2) is the first VDI solution that has achieved Target Platform status for delivering Epic Hyperspace to clinical users. Target platform is determined after performing a wide range of usability, performance, and scalability tests plus documents are created to provide sizing guidance to customers. Valuable experience and data points from customers already running Horizon View were used to share best practices with the larger community.
This is a milestone achievement for Horizon View and it reflects how VMware along with Epic and our joint customers act as change agents to push transformation in healthcare. Together we are solving real problems with tested, validated and scalable solutions.
What are those problems?
Desktop Management and Costs
Healthcare organizations were caught off guard when they moved to paperless EMR and were forced to double or in some cases triple the number of desktop devices out on the floor and patient wards. Plus we continue to see many personal devices being used by physicians such as smartphones, tablets, MACs and personal PCs. The cost to support these divergent hardware devices has become unsustainable and unaffordable… unless you move to a cloud-based virtual desktop model.
High Availability
In healthcare when you are dependent on an electronic device and that device is not cooperating, there can be some serious consequences. But VMware has never been a company to shy away from solving tough challenges so we created the VMware AlwaysOn Point of Care solution. This solution was built to withstand any outage and remain “AlwaysOn” so a clinical desktop with patient care applications and data is readily available wherever and whenever the caregiver needs it.
Patient Privacy and Data Security
Virtual desktops mean there is no data stored at the end point so no fear of a data breach from a lost or stolen laptop. As a matter of fact IT no longer has to manage end points – now they manage users and access to resources. Scott Lundstrom, IDC’s GVP IDC Health Insights writes…. “Healthcare providers continue to look for the positive return on their compliance investments in EMR. Creating value from information requires the delivery of actionable advice and information to the caregiver at the point of care. Advanced solutions to support improved communications, mobility, and analytics at the point of medical decision making require new, agile and flexible deployment options. We expect cloud based solutions that focus on delivering data to any device at any time will dominate this market in the long term.”
Cloud-based desktops from Horizon View solve these challenges PLUS they improve the overall experience and workflow for the clinicians using the system – now they can move from device to device and immediately resume their desktop session in state. It is fast and seamless.
Think about it…. Are you finding that managing your clinical desktops has become more difficult and are you looking for a better way to provide access to patient care applications, resources and data? Tell us what you think…
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