The Philips company is involved in so many segments of the consumer electronics market that sometimes it's quite hard to keep track of all, one important such domain being that of medical devices. And that's exactly the type of device we'll talk about as follows, namely the CliniScape, a Tablet PC designed and built especially to be used by medical personnel.

Thus, the CliniScape mobile clinical assistant enables nurses and physicians to take more informed clinical decisions at the point of care by using an ultra-ergonomic and medical grade always connected touch-screen device that integrates all the features needed to increase patient safety and reduce administrative workload.

The device sports a 10.4-inch XGA pen-touch-screen with a contrast ratio of 250:1, a brightness level of around 170 cd/square meters and a digitizer with inductive pen for an interface. Furthermore, the device includes an Intel Core Solo processor (1,2GHz) running the Windows Vista Business OS, a digital camera (2Mpxl) to capture pictures of patient wounds and even comes with a barcode imager and RFID reader to support the five rights of patient safety.

The CliniScape also provides a few important connectivity features, including here wireless 802.11 b/g/n connectivity, Bluetooth technology for the wireless connection of external devices and patient sensors, as well as an USB 2.0 port hidden behind the rubber cover. Moreover, this medical table is quite lightweight (around 1.6 kilos) and even comes packed with a backside handgrip to minimize fatigue.

The device also provides certain features strictly related to its role as a medical appliance, as for example the fact that it's easy to wipe clean to reduce spread of infection (IP54), has a medical grade certification for maximum patient protection as well as a durable design for less risks of downtime (can be dropped from a height of 1 meter).

Unfortunately, no price tag or exact release date have been established for the device from Philips, but the company hints that it will arrive at some point in the first half of 2008, whenever the software apps are finalized.

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