Dell World 2011: The tech UK emergency services need

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Dell hasn’t shown off much new during its premier event in Austin, Texas this week, but it has showcased a few fascinating uses of its technology.

Its tech for police and hospital workers was especially impressive, making use of various technologies to help doctors save lives and law enforcement track criminals as well as carry out forensics.

What really stuck out for IT Pro was how useful these technologies would be for wide-scale use in the UK.

What the NHS needs

The Dell Mobile Clinical Computing (MCC) set-up would not only help NHS workers move between systems with ease, it would help shore up security too.

Essentially, MCC is a tidy little desktop virtualisation solution, enabling nurses to go between computers, log on with the simple swipe of a smart card and have their virtual desktop loaded up to whatever machine they want to use. It seems to be really effective single sign-on stuff.

It’s not just a productivity piece though, it’s got some fine security pros as well. What’s really handy is that the data is stored in the data centre, not on devices themselves. So when a nurse is accessing sensitive patient data on their iPad (which should be simple given Dell’s desktop virtualisation offering can tie into either Citrix Receiver or VMware software) and then lose that tablet, it won’t have any serious ramifications for the health body. No patient data will go missing.

Anyone who knows the deplorable track record of NHS IT security will understand how valuable this would be for our health service. Furthermore, IT teams within the NHS could show how tech really can enable a slicker organisation, at a time when the body has taken a battering for its IT failures. The end result will be extra lives saved.

It has already been trialled in a number of trusts in the UK, but it would be great to see wider adoption of this Dell setup or similar technologies.

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