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Written by Geoff Halstead

Category: Patient Experience

Published: 04 November 2014

• Patient Experience

This excellent article on PatientExperience.com focuses on a key issues in Patient Experience:  Waiting Times for Appointments!   Among other things, it points out - and research validates - that the anticipation and perception of waiting is often just as anxiety-producing as the actual waiting itself. 

At Connexient, we are working on a number of important ways to attack and ultimately eliminate this problem.

First and foremost, we are providing an end-to-end navigation solution with MediNav - both outdoors and indoors - that eliminates the stress of getting lost. Convenient features like Parking Planner and My Car Saver ensure that the patient or visitor is directed to the most convenient parking location based on their actual appointment location inside the building, and then will get them back to their car hours later.   This not coincidentally can also help the Healthcare provider reduce appointment late-shows, which wreak havoc with schedules and often are a primary source of long waits in the first place.

We are also working on innovative pilots with several clients to integrate appointment reminders with MediNav, supported by HIPAA-compliant communications in our partnership with Mutare.  Just this one simple step of an SMS reminder, with an easy option for customers to then set their own follow-up reminders, has been proven to reduce no shows.

As we move forward down this path, we are working towards an "Airline Check-in model" where we can dynamically update the organizations scheduling system so appointments can be better managed to actual reduce wait times.

Technology is not the whole solution but - when integrated into Enterprise IT and processes - can have a big impact on improving both the perception and real pain points of Patient Experience.

Read the article on Patient Experience.com:

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Written by Geoff Halstead

Category: Indoor Positioning

Published: 13 August 2014

• Indoor Navigation
• CISCO
• BLE

Indoor Positioning Solutions Guide for the Enterprise

Today's blog is the first of a series intended to provide Enterprises with: (a) an overview of the major approaches and the best solutions for Indoor Positioning ; and (b) important considerations when evaluating your needs and plan for indoor positioning. Readers interested in a more detailed understanding and discussion may wish to contact us for a consultation and evaluation. 

The Inflection Point is Rapidly Approaching for Indoor Positioning

As a company dedicated to Indoor Navigation and Location-based Services, Connexient keeps a close eye on anything involving indoor positioning.   We made an early and conscious decision not to get involved in the race to perfect solutions in this area - not because it was not important, but rather because there were plenty of companies both large and small with deep expertise and resources already working on the problem.

The last couple of quarters have seen two developments that represent quantum leaps forward for indoor positioning.

1. The embrace of BLE by both Apple and Google

With the release and characteristically effective promotion of its iBeacon standard, Apple made BLE legitimate and highlighted its strengths. After some further assessment, Google followed suit and has also now fully embraced BLE support in Android 4.2 and 4.3 (JellyBean).

The key impact of this is now highly accurate, handset-based indoor positioning solutions are available across both iOs and Android.  Moreover, Apple iBeacons are seeing rapid adoption and acceptance in retail, which should put to rest any concerns from other Enterprise verticals.

2. Apple’s Integration of Indoor Positioning into iOs 8.0

Apple announced at their WWDC earlier this year that its own Indoor Positioning technology is now built in to iOs 8.0. This uses handset sensor-fusion technology - with no BLE beacons - from a company called WiFiSlam, which Apple purchased in 2013. We tested WiFiSlam back then and and found it to be quite solid, so it will be very interesting to see how it performs!   While we still believe beacons are part of the reliable solution, the widespread availability of at least baseline indoor positioning in iOs 8 will in our view greatly accelerate user interest in and demand for indoor positioning and location-based services.

3. Cisco's roadmap for Mobility Services Engine (MSE)

Over the last year, we have been privileged to work closely with Cisco in several different pilots and gain an understanding of their current capabilities as well as their roadmap for the Indoor Positioning performance of Cisco MSE, which is part of the Cisco CMX (Connected Mobile Experiences) platform. Without disclosing any details, which are confidential, what we can tell you is that starting with the just released MSE version 8.0, Cisco is rolling out a credible, comprehensive path over the next 12 - 18 months that will deliver highly accurate and low latency (i.e. high refresh rates) indoor positioning. This will be a true Enterprise solution for not only Indoor Navigation, but the entire range of Indoor location-based services that will drive value and ROI.

We believe that these three waves of innovation will mark the inflection point in the market for the widespread adoption of Enterprise Indoor Location-based Services.

Needless to say, we find that to be quite exciting!

Overview of Indoor Positioning Technologies

There are four basic approaches to solving the problem of indoor positioning that have been improving and evolving rapidly - and now starting to converge - over the last several years.

1. WiFi Fingerprinting

A software only, device-based approach that reads the digital signatures of the WiFi network.

• Pros: Device-based software only, low cost, easy to calibrate.

• Cons: Simply not accurate or reliable enough.

2. Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons / iBeacons

Simple, low-cost transmitters (“beacons”) that can be placed around a venue. Application software on the device and then be programmed to read these signals to drive a wide range of user interactions and engagement.

• Pros: Low-cost and maintenance, standard embraced by Apple and now Google.

• Cons: Beacon infrastructure to maintain, not suitable on their own for wayfinding or navigation.

3. Handset Sensor Fusion

This involves accessing data from multiple sensors on the phone such as the compass, gyroscope - in addition to WiFi fingerprinting and/or BLE Beacons - and applying sophisticated algorithms and techniques to "fuse" these together into an optimal estimate of the device's position.

• Pros:  Device-based software only, low cost, easy to calibrate.

• Cons: Good for some use cases but not reliable enough on its own for indoor navigation.

4. Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE). A network-based approach that leverages an array of techniques to position all devices connecting or visible to the network, not just smartphones.

• Pros: A true Enterprise solution, addressing infrastructure security and management..

• Cons: Accuracy and refresh rates currently suitable only for some use cases.

Up until recently, these were each separate technologies and strategies for Indoor Positioning. Now they are starting to converge - or at least be used in combination when needed.

Which Solution is Best for Indoor LBS?

Well, that depends!   The answer depends on your organizations needs and objectives for Indoor Location-based Services. Connexient develops applications and use cases for Digital Wayfinding and Indoor Navigation that require strong indoor positioning performance, so we will focus there.   Why?  Because these are where the most value for the end user and the highest ROI for the Enterprise can be found.

Let’s start with defining the three levels of indoor positioning quality that are relevant to our solutions. 

1. Location-Enhanced Wayfinding. We define this as a solution that can answer the basic question: Where am I? It must do this accurately and quickly enough to be actionable - i.e. a user actively navigating a venue can make useful decisions.

2. Location-Enhanced Routing.   Here the indoor positioning accuracy and refresh rates are sufficient to be dynamically integrated into route visualization and we can start to actively guide the prompt user actions based on their position and let them know when they are off track.  

3. Indoor Navigation.  Indoor Navigation is, of course, our Holy Grail.  This requires an very high level of accuracy and refresh for indoor location to support 3 key capabilities:  

   • driving the route visualization - i.e. the camera view of the route;

   • anticipating and prompting for upcoming turns; and

   • providing audio prompts and/or voice direction of navigation.

Our Take on Indoor Positioning Technologies

Over the last several years, we’ve been fortunate to have tested all of these various solutions in one way or another, including now in several pilots integrating them with our application. At the end of the day, there are in our view two viable solutions today, with a hybrid, step-by-step approach being the best for Enterprise clients.

Here’s the what and why.

1. Handset-based Sensor Fusion + BLE Beacons

While iBeacons are fine for proximity-based interactions and engagement - whose use cases tend to fit better in retail environments - they are not suitable on their own for wayfinding or navigation. For that, the additional capability of handset sensor fusion is critical to providing continuous accurate and reliable positioning.  The good news is this combined approach, in our testing, is yielding outstanding positioning performance.

Recommended Solutions

• Senion Lab
• Polestar

Pros

• High accuracy & refresh rates: 1 - 2 Meters, sub-second refresh frequency
• Flexible:  Can work with WiFi Fingerprinting alone for Android and without any outside inputs where there are gaps in either WiFi or BLE Beacon coverage.
• Relatively Low Cost:
  • About $50 - $70 per beacon.
  • Annual license fees in addition to Beacon deployment.
• Easy to install:  Beacons are about the size of a matchbox
• Easy to Calibrate:  Literally a few hours to a few days depending on the size of the facility.
• Easy to maintain:  Between 2 - 5 year battery life.Easy to integrate:  both Senion and Polestar have excellent SDKs

Cons

• Really must have BLE Beacons to maintain consistent accuracy.
• In effect a new wireless network to manage
• Short range - about 20 to 40 meters maximum
• Low energy:  will not penetrate walls, metal, etc.

The Bottom Line  

BLE Beacons combined with Handset-based Sensor Fusion is the most accurate, reliable and robust technology solution for Indoor Navigation quality indoor positioning available today - so long as you only need to position smartphones and tablets.

2.  Cisco Mobility Services Engine (MSE)

Cisco MSE, which is part of the Cisco CMX platform,  brings an entirely different, network-based approach to indoor positioning.   This is not surprising, of course, since Cisco powers that network.  While the current performance of MSE is not comparable to Sensor Fusion + BLE, there are important advantages to this approach for Enterprise clients, which we will discuss further below.  

 Even more importantly:

1. the latest MSE 8.0 release - with FastLocate module add-on for 3600 and 3700 APs - is now sufficient for Location-Enhanced Wayfinding;

2. Cisco is rapidly improving the indoor positioning performance of MSE over the next 12 to 18 months to get to true Indoor Navigation capability; and

3. Enterprise clients can supplement Cisco MSE today with Handset Sensor Fusion + BLE to get Indoor Navigation quality wayfinding today.

 Here are the key data points.

Baseline Requirements  

• MSE v. 8.0
• 3600 or 3700 Series APs
• Associated requirements for PI (Prime Infrastucture) version

Pros

• Enterprise Solution:  Cisco has and continues to think through and address all the broader Enterprise IT issues of wireless network management, including:
  • Device / Tag management
  • Minimizing or eliminating Interference
  • Security
  • Unified Management
• Improving Rapidly:  Cisco has laid out a credible and compelling roadmap to rapidly improve indoor positioning - which will include BLE - to accuracy and refresh rates suitable for Indoor Navigation and all other Indoor LBS use cases.
• Trusted partner:  Organizations can rely on Cisco to deliver Enterprise-grade solutions that address infrastructure management and security.

Cons

• Accuracy:  5 - 7 meters - not suitable for indoor navigation, but very useful for Location-Enhanced Wayfinding.
• Latency:  Starting with MSE 8.0, notifications and refresh rates can be reduced to approximately 10 seconds.
• Deployment:  Requires high AP density and accuracy is highly dependent on the right density, location, calibration and other factors.
• Cost:  More expensive than BLE solution - but depends on what AP's and coverage are already in place.

The Bottom Line

• Starting with MSE v. 8.0, Cisco CMX is a real option for Enterprise’s seeking to deploy Indoor Positioning solutions for Location-Enhanced Wayfinding.
• Enterprises that want navigation-quality indoor positioning today should supplement their current Cisco WiFi and MSE infrastructure with Handset-based Sensor Fusion plus BLE Beacons.   
• Enterprises alternatively can:
  • lay the foundation and address user needs now with stand-alone Indoor Mapping and Digital Wayfinding; and
  • plan their Indoor LBS infrastructure around the Cisco MSE roadmap - starting with MSE 8.0 and 3600 or 3700 Series APs.

More Information

Readers that are interested in more information on how BLE Beacons can complement Cisco MSE may be interested to review this blog and other resources on Cisco.com.

• Indoor WiFi Location and Beacons: Better Together

• Indoor WiFi Location and Beacons: Better Together - Part 2 

How to Get Started

So the great news is that any Enterprise which wants to provide anything from Location-Enhanced Wayfinding to true Indoor Navigation can do so right now!   Absolutely, there are considerations and decisions to weigh, and deployments should be carefully planned.  But there are no barriers to starting to leverage Indoor Positioning right now to: 

1. provide a great Patient Experience;

2. improve operational efficiency; and

3. reduce lost revenues.

 For an evaluation and consultation on the best Indoor Positioning solution options for your Enterprise, please contact us.

Contact Connexient for a Free Consultation on Indoor Positioning Solutions

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Written by Geoff Halstead

Category: Indoor LBS

Published: 04 August 2014

• Patient Experience
• Indoor Mapping
• Indoor LBS

Enterprise Indoor LBS:  Going Beyond the Patient

Several weeks ago, we talked about the compelling use cases for patients and visitors that will be enabled by our new partnership with Mutare to integrate HIPAA-compliant communications into MediNav, starting with integrating appointment reminders with end-to-end wayfinding.   From there, a wide array of useful features and services flow that will tangibly improve the patient experience while increasing efficiency and capture lost revenue for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers.

Not surprisingly, the same or even greater benefits arise when you apply Indoor LBS to other areas, such as:

• Operations;
• Security;
• Facility Management;
• Clinical Workflow;
• and More

Each of these areas have use cases that bring compelling value to users and direct ROI to the Enterprise in capturing lost revenue, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. That's why we emphasize to our clients that when we develop and deploy navigation-quality Indoor Maps, what we are really doing is laying a foundation for Indoor Location-Based Services (LBS). Wayfinding and Indoor Navigation may be the first "killer application", but it is really just the tip of the iceberg.

The Four Cornerstones of Enterprise Indoor LBS

Over the next few weeks, we will illustrate each of these and discuss the steps we are taking together with innovative clients and partners to realize these benefits.   First, however, we think it would be useful to lay out the conceptual framework for how we approach Enterprise Indoor LBS.

Each of these cornerstones are critically important, and only when all are fully deployed can all of the benefits of Indoor LBS be realized.  At the same time, however, when building any infrastructure - even a digital one - there is a natural sequence and progression, and the Enterprise can realize substantial and increasing returns at each step along the way.

1. Indoor Mapping

Navigation-quality Indoor Mapping is the first step. Why? Because Indoor LBS is about leveraging location in all its aspects. Where things are, which is closest, how to get there, how to optimize flows and positioning of people and equipment, and so on. None of these questions can be answered without navigation-quality mapping.

The good news is that the Enterprise can achieve immediate benefits as soon as this cornerstone is in place - enhancing patient experience with high-quality digital wayfinding being just one example.   So we advise our clients to start immediately and first here.

2.  Integrations

Integrations are the next cornerstone - and where the Enterprise can start to achieve measurable ROI. Why? The fundamental driver of the enormous success of the Internet has been the power of connections:

• devices (computers);
• applications;
• data; and ultimately
• people.

As a whole, this truth is captured best inMetcalfe's Law, which says that "The value of any network is proportional to the square of the number of its connections."

This is why Connexient is committed to providing the best and most complete set of APIs and data connectors that integrate mapping, location and navigation into other Enterprise applications, platforms and IT. We hope that many clients will find that MediNav™ and other applications we create provide value. But the greatest ROI from our platform and services will come as our maps, navigation and location-services are integrated to make other applications and platforms in the Enterprise location aware.

3. Security

In building a foundation for Indoor LBS for the Enterprise, security is the third cornerstone. By definition, we are building maps and providing features and services that are at the core of a company's operations, as well as its activities and engagement with its customers and visitors. That is vitally sensitive, and needs to be handled that way.

In Healthcare, this issue comes to the forefront and must be addressed first through HIPAA compliance. Whether dealing with patients, caregivers or other staff and partners, it is critically important that communications and personally identifiable health information be kept private and secure at all times. But other aspects of Enterprise facility data, operations and activity are equally sensitive and important to protect with the same standard of care.

That is why Connexient partnered with Mutare to support HIPAA-compliant communications and is implementing HIPAA-Compliant architecture throughout its application, servers and systems.

4. Indoor Positioning

Indoor Positioning is the final cornerstone of the digital infrastructure for Enterprise Indoor LBS. As we have all experienced in our every day lives with Google Navigation on our phones, asset tracking, maritime navigation and so on, the power of knowing where people and things are - including yourself - is transformational.

The good news - and the bad news - is that the technology for "Indoor GPS" is currently in a state of very dynamic evolution. For those companies that want to be early adopters, there are good solutions available right now for smartphones and smartpads using a combination of handset-sensor fusion software and bluetooth low-energy (BLE) beacons.  Meanwhile, Apple and Google are working very hard on their own solutions that will be baked right in to iOs and Android respectively.

Most importantly of all, Cisco is working hard and moving rapidly with a roadmap for Cisco CMX that will make a true Enterprise solution for navigation-quality Indoor GPS available by mid-2015.  In the meantime, with their recent release of MSE v. 8.0 and the "FastLocate" module, indoor positioning sufficient for "Location-enhanced Wayfinding" is available right now.

This is why Connexient has invested so much time and resources into testing and pioneering the integration of Digital Wayfinding with the most advanced indoor-positioning solutions available in the market, and works so closely with Cisco to push the envelope of what is possible today and tomorrow with Cisco CMX.

Life as a young company on the bleeding edge of technology is hard and full of uncertainty. But we believe the risk and effort are worth the pay-off in being able to deliver the transformational power of Indoor GPS to the Enterprise.

Bringing It All Together

When all of these cornerstones of the digital infrastructure are in place, the complete potential of Enterprise Indoor LBS will be immediate, measurable and clearly visible to all stakeholders and deliver ROI and value across nearly all aspects of the Enterprise.

Connexient's mission is to help our clients realize these benefits. We start first by addressing the four cornerstones, working together with partners and clients to find the right strategy and path to implementation. As these are put in place, Connexient is constantly working to improve and perfect its solutions in four areas:

1. navigation that guides users (whether they be human or machines) through complex facilities and networks;
2. analyticsthat give both the Enterprise and users visibility into the key drivers for decision-making;
3. business logic and intelligence that leverage and weave together all of the elements of location, data, analytics, targeting and personalization;
4. compelling user interface and experience (UI and UX) that make Indoor LBS intuitive, useful and actionable.

This is how, we believe, Indoor LBS can and will transform the Enterprise and create an entirely new level of convenience, efficiency and utility for end users.   It will not happen overnight or through one single innovation. It will take hard work, planning and collaboration to get there.

But our key message is that each cornerstone brings immediate value and returns along the path to laying a complete digital foundation and infrastructure.

In the next articles in this series, we will focus on the "low hanging" fruit in different areas of Healthcare that we can address right now as we move step-by-step with our clients down this path.

Want to Learn More?

Want to learn more about Connexient's MediNav and the path to leveraging Indoor LBS to enhance patient experience, reduce costs, capture lost revenues and improve efficiency?

Please contact us to schedule a consultation or demo.