GCE Healthcare

Case Study

Continuous operation with Howden

GCE Healthcare develops and manufactures a range of high-quality, safe and reliable medical gas solutions and devices that help healthcare professionals and providers worldwide to meet the needs of patients and to achieve high standards of care. Their equipment is designed, manufactured and delivered to the highest standards and comply with applicable quality and regulatory standards. GCE Healthcare’s products include; medical gas regulators, cylinder valves, suction pumps, resuscitators which are used in hospitals, pneumatic and electronic gas conservers and portable oxygen concentrators for use at home.

CHALLENGE

One of the most popular GCE Healthcare’s product is Zen-O™ portable oxygen concentrator. It was designed to enable patients with respiratory disorders such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), to better manage their oxygen therapy within and outside their homes. 

The challenge was to enhance Zen-O™ with IoT technology.

 

SOLUTION

Konektio developed an online platform for GCE Healthcare using PTC’s ThingWorx Platform and facilitated the delivery of the project by bringing together an ecosystem of partners.

The connectivity hardware within the Zen-O™ devices was designed and manufactured by CoCom in the UK using Intel® Technology. Connectivity was provided by Stream Technologies global roaming SIM and managed through their IoT-X™ platform. An additional security layer to protect patient confidentiality was provided by Device Authority’s KeyScaler™ platform enabling secure device authentication and security certificate rotation.

The system is branded ‘Clarity’ which means GCE Healthcare can also offer their patients and their families access to the platform, giving them an extra support network.

“This project has moved GCE into the world of connected healthcare with new services and revenue streams based on a secure and scalable platform. It has significantly improved our offering to our customers, the patients we serve, and their clinicians. True partners through this journey, Konektio have an open style and don’t rest until the product is right. We look forward to continuing our partnership with them as we extend into other areas connected products and operations.”
Donald Oleforo, GCE Healthcare Group Product Manager

 

RESULTS

Thanks to the platform, GCE Healthcare can provide health care and home oxygen providers, patients and their families instant access to information from flow to oxygen purity, device location and battery life. In this way they can:-

 

  • Monitor device performance and carry out predictive maintenance
  • Optimise assets, ensuring patients have the right device
  • Help patients manage their adherence to prescription
  • Track device location using GPS and GSM technologies