Spectralink and Voalte are joining forces to create an enterprise-wide communication platform for clinicians.

Under terms of the partnership, Voalte's One solution will be integrated with Spectralink's PIVOT WorkSmart device, giving users voice-over Wi-Fi calling, HIPAA-compliant text messaging and alarm and alert integration on the Android operating system.

"The market has done a 180-degree turn in the last five years," Voalte founder and CEO Trey Lauderdale told mHealth News. "I expect we'll see even more action in the next five years. … Within two to three years, it's going to be all smartphones at the point of care."

The partnership between two one-time competitors points to the fluid nature of the clinical communications space, which is being bombarded by wireless devices and hemmed in by the bring-your-own-device craze. Health systems are looking for platforms that combine mobility and ease-of-use, giving doctors and nurses one device that can fit in a coat pocket and perform a wide variety of tasks (one of the PIVOT models, in fact, includes a barcode reader).

Spectralink officials point to a 2013 study from the Ponemon Institute, which found that caregivers waste an average of 45 minutes a day on outdated communication technologies. That's especially true of nurses, who are often the first contact with the patient at the point of care.

"Nurses are accustomed to using multiple pieces of technology throughout their day to complete their daily tasks, including landline phones, scanners, pagers, computers, radios and outdated noisy overhead paging systems." Mike Lanciloti, Spectralink's vice president of product management, wrote in a recent article for Executive Insight. "Typically, technology is considered advancement in healthcare, but with outdated methods and too many devices to hold, nurses can experience issues in trying to effectively do their job."

While both Voalte, based in Sarasota, Fla., and Spectralink, based in Boulder, Col., got their start in addressing the nursing market, both have since tailored their products to appeal to doctors as well – an important factor when designing a care coordination platform that reaches all members of the care team.

Lauderdale says the Voalte platform, which can be leveraged in a number of mobile devices (the company also has a partnership with Motorola), will eventually make its way out of the hospital setting and into doctor's offices and clinics as the care team expands. That, in turn, should play into the development of accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes, which push healthcare and management outside the traditional office setting and into new locations.

"This really is an announcement to the (healthcare) market that smartphones are going to be the way to the point of care," he said.

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