Infra-Red (IR) system for comprehensive streamlining of information flow, managing and handling

Not every emergency room resembles the scene of a mass attack, heaven forbid, as is shown in Dr. Green’s ward on the television series ER. But anyone who has had the misfortune to have to wait in the emergency room is very familiar with the disorder there, and patients’ frustration.

However, there is an end to the mess. Elpas, with its EIRIS system, will organize the disorder. The system, based on infra-red communications technology, is designed to make optimal use of resources - technical and human - in the emergency room (among other places).

How is this accomplished? Patients and medical staff are given identity badges which relay infra-red signals. These signals are received by a control network installed in the emergency room. The information regarding the identity of the badge bearer and his location is transmitted by the system’s communications network to the main NT server equipped with EIRIS software. The software connects to the existing management systems working on technologies such as ERP and MRP, installed in hospitals. And there you have a management system with constant monitoring of doctors and patients.

The system has many applications, such as transmitting the location of the doctor in the emergency room in order to direct telephone calls to him, send him urgently to a patient when necessary, and more. The badge also has a button that can be defined for any purpose the staff bearer, or hospital wishes, for example as a distress button.

Patients will also be equipped with the badges, thereby enabling monitoring of their admission to the emergency room, the treatment process, and the waiting period between stations, in order to ensure improved service. Presiding over all this is one nurse, or administrator who orchestrate the unfolding drama and direct staff and equipment in an optimal manner. At Tel Hashomer Hospital, by the way, a similar sort of function already exists. Additional applications are warnings against baby snatching or exchanging. Elpas is currently working on a badge that will send reciprocal signals between mothers and babies in maternity wards.

When the company’s vice president for marketing Ofer Yourvexel discloses the business concept which forms the basis of Elpas’s product, it is difficult to believe that it is not cast in its own mold, but is grafted onto an existing product, which underwent several incarnations on the way to becoming the current product. Yourvexel, who was engaged in making semiconductor production lines more efficient prior to joining Elpas two months ago, invented a model according to which management of emergency rooms should be conducted as production lines. The model not only fits superbly in hospitals, it is also goes hand in hand with global trends for strategic management of health institutions. This was most prominent in the Medica exhibition for medical equipment that took place in Disseldorf two weeks ago, where Elpas presented its wares.

In a typical shift at an emergency room, there are ten to twenty doctors with varying degrees of experience and specialization, and ten to forty nurses. Some patients are sent for tests outside the room, while doctors are sent to others according to their expertise. Based on the production line model; the patients are likened to products, the medical team and equipment to manufacturing resources, which are limited; the flow of patients to the various stations - to the flow of products along the production line; and the top priority patients - to top priority products.

"Very similar, yet completely different," says Yourvexel, in a most humane sort of anti-climax, "because here we are talking about people and one error can cost a human life." It is extremely difficult to argue with such a strong statement, since a distributor, and a hospital manager, can easily come to terms with a concept of efficiency and profitability, and sleep well at night.

Despite the close likeness and the great interest the system elicited at the Medica exhibition, Elpas was not founded with the medical market in view. The company was set up in 1993 by Israel Radomsky, a former Israel Defense Industries engineer, and double winner of the Israel Defense Award. The intention was to penetrate the toll roads market, but it swiftly became clear at the small company that it would have difficulty penetrating the field.

Three years ago, Elpas started concentrating on the EIRIS product, and has so far reaped considerable success. The company began to penetrate the hospital market, where it encountered the telephone exchange manufacturer Execution, which quickly identified the need in hospitals for exchanges to connect to doctors’ locations while they do their rounds throughout the hospital. Execution became the distributor of Elpas systems, and invested in the company.

In the Japanese market too, so difficult to penetrate, Elpas has been very successful. Last week, it was reported that a Japanese conglomerate, the 13th largest company worldwide, invested in the Israeli company as part of a secondary capital raising exercise. Neither the amount of the investment nor the name of the conglomerate were released for publication, but the private placement, totaling $3 million, reportedly included Ophir and Star Seed funds, headed by Benny Hangal, the founder of Lannet. Hangal is also chairman of Elpas.

To date, the company has posted over two hundred installations of its systems, including Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva and Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. The cost of the system ranges from $40,000 up to millions of dollars, depending on the size.

Elpas’s technology is applied in the intelligent buildings field as well, where it enables employee arrival and exit times to be registered, and air-conditioners, light switches, computers, etc. in the relevant rooms to be activated or switched off accordingly. Among its customers in this field are a large German automobile company whose name has net yet been released for publication, advertising agency Gitam, and others.

According to Yourvexel, Elpas has one direct competitor, Olivetti, which markets a similar product, but "whose technology is backward compared to ours." Indirect competition comes from the direction of smart cards, which are "one generation behind our product," says Yourvexel, since action is required on the part of the worker in order to signal his identity and location, by running the card through the reader. The main players in this market are IBM, Microsoft and Motorola. Yourvexel says that the advantage of the badges is that they have become part of the working environment scene in organizations.

Published by Israel's Business Arena December 9, 1998

"The idea was to combine the technology with existing X-ray machines," explains deputy general manager for marketing Ami Rudich, "to teach the system to decide whether the picture it sees represents a suspicious object or not." It does not rule out the human role, he says, "The system's job is to aid the operator and warn about suspicious objects, but the final decision rests with him. Our system increases the chances of detecting a suspicious object, since it does not tire."

Tamshes explains that the machine is capable of studying in real-time, through a set of algorithms replicating the human system of understanding. He says that it involves unconventional artificial intelligence which combines analysis of space, color and depth.

The system has already reached the beta stage at US company EG&G Astrophysics, which dominates 50% of the worldwide screening equipment market, used not only for airport luggage scanning, but also at entrances to US government buildings, and examinations of mail intended for public figures. It is an EG&G division, a Fortune 500 company engaged in medical diagnostics, electro-optics, etc., with an annual turnover of $1.5 billion.

Most of the development process will be conducted in Israel, while the US company will be in charge of marketing and distribution. The two have an OEM contract, according to which the US company will purchase the Israeli product.

In its short life, the young company has managed to gain not only a strategic partner, but also a prestigious development grant from the FAA, which was so enthralled by the Israeli development that it accorded it an R&D grant of $519,000 for the project, with EG&G registered as the main contractor, and the Israeli company as sub-contractor. "It is very rare for this to happen to a foreign company," says Keret. The tremendous advantage in FAA's participation in the project stems from the authority's ability to oblige airports to purchase the system.

Another, less strict authority, was also thrilled by the technology. "Someone senior in the British cabinet," says Keret, who considered that the product met his country's criteria and who had the power to dictate to the European Union, and oblige the member countries to install similar systems. "We need to persuade two bodies already convinced," says Keret.

It is therefore not surprising that the US colleagues are excited. The market is enormous, according to company president Tom Schorling, who visited Israel several weeks ago. "We have about 10,000 machines in use, and we are the largest company in this field. However, we do not have more than half the market, and therefore want the technology to suit other machines as well." According to Schorling, the airport security systems market stands at $100 billion.

Published by Israel's Business Arena November 23, 1998