Vocera -- known for its wireless badge form factor communication devices for hospital settings -- announced the first shipment of its new device: the Vocera smartphone. The company jointly developed the smartphone with Motorola, but Vocera said the device offers the same one-touch, voice user interface of the Vocera communications badge. The Vocera smartphone runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, which supports alarm/alert systems, asset tracking, medical reference software and includes access to corporate email.

Even though Vocera calls it a smartphone, it makes no mention of whether or not the device has a Web browser, or whether Internet access has been removed. Not sure a device qualifies as a "smartphone" if it lacks access to the full Internet. (Update: Vocera wrote in to clarify that the device does include Internet Explorer and access to the Internet.)

Vocera counts more than 600 hospitals and 400,000 users as its customers -- Arkansas Children's Hospital was one of the beta users of the Vocera smartphone:

“Arkansas Children’s Hospital wanted to extend the intelligent, yet simple, Vocera experience to a wider user base to include hospitalists and doctors,” said Kim Hays, Telecom Applications Analyst for Arkansas Children’s Hospital. “Based on the needs of a specific group of our clinical staff, the smartphone had immediate appeal. They now have instant access to key resources through the Vocera communications system’s voice interface, but in a phone form that they like for its familiarity.”

For more, check out this video from Vocera explaining the new smartphone, below: