rural counties. There isn't a really good answer, and it's probably not
going to be easy.
- Is the mobile blood drive being conducted from a truck or is it set up at
a local facility like a school, library, etc.?
- How many computers/devices are you going to want to hook up at a location?
- Do your intranet apps work adequately over a slow modem connection or is
broadband necessary?
- Are the intranet apps designed as web service type apps that could allow
for easy alternate interfaces, or are they pretty much the one app as-is?
If it's a truck, then I would look into satellitite. If it's on-location,
that's harder. I would start by doing an inventory of locations you will be
going into and what facilities they offer. If modem is okay, you might be
fine, but if broadband is required you're going to either have to use what
they provide or get contracted service beforehand and just work that into
the operating costs. Even the modem route may require several service
contracts for various areas. Cellular modems are generally slower than 56k,
typically 19K or so.
If you need multiple devices, consider setting up a mini-network with a
central system connecting and using a gateway, either hardware or software,
to share that connection. If you can use the apps as web-services, I would
consider writing a Flash Remoting app that can run on either a laptop or
handheld. If you have to use the existing web app as-is, sharing a modem
connection is going to get slow, but I used to do it on my home network
before broadband was available.
HIPPA is a can of worms. We've bumped into it here, but fortunately we've
dodged the bullet so far in doing something as complicated as you are. I'm
not sure the details of the top of my head, but it's certainly not to be
taken lightly. Wireless has been notoriously insecure, but I'm not up to
date on the effectiveness of the new WPA encryption. I did just see a story
though about hospitals adopting 802.11b.
http://eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20040107S0014
Good luck.
-Kevin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Skinner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 2:11 PM
Subject: Mobile Computing
> We just got a requirement to research mobile laptop and/or handheld
computer
> access to some of our intranet applications. What are the different
> combinations of technologies that might do this? We would be looking for
> something that is fairly wide ranging. This will be for our mobile blood
> drives where we go to different business and organizational locations all
> over the Central Northern California area to collect blood. We are
> exploring the possibility of having our staff at these locations connected
> to our data and application resources so that they can have access to data
> such as a repeat donor's medical history as well as the ability to update
> and add new data in real time.
>
> I'm guessing that at this time public wireless (WLAN/WWAN) access points
> could be very hit or miss, especially in the smaller communities and rural
> areas on whether the staff would have a connection at any given location.
> What about cellular modems or Satellite modems? Are either/both of these
> reliable and widely available? What are the security concerns we would
need
> to look into? The data being flown through the air would be under HIPPA
> restrictions, and we would want to be very confidant in the security of
the
> transmission and the data, as well as not opening up holes in our network
> security that could allow breaches.
>
> I would really love any recommendations on any resource we can use to
> research the pros, cons and requirements of various options. If there are
> any other technologies I haven't mentioned in my first brainstorm of this
> please chime in.
>
> I'm off to dive into Google to see what I can start to learn.
>
> Thank You
>
> --------------
> Ian Skinner
> Web Programmer
> BloodSource
> www.BloodSource.org
> Sacramento, CA
>
>
>
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