The IoT-Powered Smart Devices that Save Time

March 21, 2023 | Kathleen McQuade

As Pennsylvania’s founding father William Penn once said, “time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” And for many, that age-old expression still holds true today.  

It’s true, no matter the number of resources at our disposal, all of us are allotted the same amount of hours in a day, which means we must make the most of every minute and second to remain productive. This is especially true for life sciences and healthcare professionals, who must manage their time carefully to stay at the forefront of their ever-evolving field. And that's where the Swittons line of IoT-power smart devices comes in.

Swittons are a flexible enterprise solution that extends remote ecosystems, provides automations and enhances controls by enabling true human-to-digital workflows. They are designed with a modern, flexible user interface that not only integrates with other systems but other IoT devices as well. This flexibility gives teams the power to create their own workflows, configured in the best way for their specific use case.

With their versatile designs and built-in mobile connectivity, Swittons can easily be deployed anywhere. But they are proving to be extremely useful in lab, patient care, and brand engagement environments. Here are some examples of what that looks like.

How Labs Save Time with Swittons

The fully customizable devices align with strategic Lab of the Future (LoTF) initiatives and help save time by automating various laboratory workflows between people and existing digital lab equipment, systems and solutions. They are also easy to deploy within pharmaceutical laboratories of all types. And their flexible design gives labs the power to create their own LoTF, configured in the way that works best for their specific use case. This means Swittons devices can be uniquely programmed, even within an individual laboratory, so end users aren’t forced into workflows that don’t fit their job function.

In addition, Swittons devices take up very little desk space, so they are conveniently available and work seamlessly within individual work styles. They also integrate with lab support platforms and services like LIMS, eDOC and ticketing systems. And each Swittons device can be custom branded and programmed for a wide range of laboratory scenarios. In lab settings, Swittons saves time by:

  • Reducing the need for frequent scrub in and scrub out
  • Opening equipment service tickets
  • Providing equipment occupancy notification
  • Triggering video calls
  • Notifying of temperature control deviation
  • Opening tickets in software such as ServiceNow, Salesforce Service Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics
  • Reordering supplies and materials
  • Notifying of spill/cleaning needed
  • Summoning a lab runner
  • Alerting in an emergency

How Care Teams and Patients Save Time With Swittons

One of the more revolutionary applications for Swittons is at-home medical care. Devices placed in the home can be used to share data with medical professionals, signal non-emergency supply orders, track medication adherence and more. They can also be used to trigger remote calls with health professionals, reducing the need for in-person visits. Remote monitoring is especially important for those working in the area of specialized therapeutics, where Swittons can help track the administration of complex therapeutics, reorder refills and supplies or alert in the event of an adverse reaction.

Clinical trial management is another area where Swittons shines. At clinical sites, Swittons can enable one-touch requests of drug supply and incidentals, or trigger discussions with clinical research associates (CRAs). But what’s even more exciting is that Swittons also works to help streamline things at the patient level. During clinical trials, for example, patients can log medication adherence, report their state of well-being or facilitate interactions with the clinical trial team at the push of a button.

How Brands Save Time With Swittons

For brands, Switton's easy, push-button controls and omnipresent functionality power real-time brand engagement. As highlighted in IoT Business News1, IoT-powered smart devices like Swittons enhance customer relationships by enabling brands to be omnipresent. They also save time by automating brand interactions, product orders and more.

For brand teams, deploying IoT-powered solutions accomplishes the following:

  • Solves “whitespace” problems by enabling communication with customers who were previously untargeted for remoteness or other reasons.
  • Boosts the launch of new brands by increasing awareness and sample facilitation. Devices can be custom branded for marketing purposes, and functionality can be preprogrammed to help facilitate automatic or “at a touch” reorders.
  • Adds more coverage for sales teams that have downsized. IoT-powered solutions can be utilized as virtual assistants, creating a presence in offices and areas that are being unnurtured because of a lack of human capital.
  • Helps customers order samples faster.
  • Enables a 24/7, unobtrusive presence in offices and facilities. Communication, where at the push of a button the smart devices can trigger notifications, video calls and more.
  • Brings critical data from the device to the enterprise in an easy, seamless way.

The Complete Line of Swittons

There are four types of Swittons: Original, Advanced, Advanced with RFID and Touch. Each model has different features for different environments. So, no matter your needs, there's likely a Swittons device that's perfect for you. Here is how they compare.

  • Original Swittons:

The Original Swittons is best suited for those that need a more tactile solution. They are perfect for those with blindness, loss of sight or screen sensitivity. And like all of the Swittons models, they are a disruption to standard workstream efficiency technologies. Residing at the point-of-use (the “final mile” of service), the device has four buttons to fast-track various needs.

Swittons originally launched as an interface between pharma sales reps and physicians, but the technology quickly expanded to other use cases within life sciences, especially laboratory, patient care and brand engagement settings. However, the omnichannel enterprise application can be deployed within any setting that has a need for seamless human-to-digital interventions. The platform is also perfect for those that need a top-down, multi-tiered workstream of automations to occur within their existing enterprise software solutions.

  • Swittons Advanced and Swittons Advanced with RFID:

The Advanced line of its Swittons IoT-enabled smart devices offer advanced hardware and remote customization capabilities, as well as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) functionality as an option. The Switons Advanced model features a flat, integrated, pressure-sensitive button system—which enables full-face branding for added commercial benefit. The Swittos Advanced with RFID model contains the optional RFID feature to both authenticate and streamline key processes within service ecosystems, supply chains, customer communication, manufacturing, inventory controls, emergency response and more.

  • Swittons Touch:

Spoiler Alert: the newly developed Swittons Touch is the most advanced model yet. It has all of the features of the other models plus a touch screen that can be used to control the device without the need for physical buttons or switches. The devices are also easier for customers to manage and program. And they offer functionality beyond the original four-button workflow. Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to officially launching this innovative model.     

More about Swittons

Regardless of which model, each of the Swittons devices can be custom branded and programmed to align with specific workstreams and can integrate with existing health IT and enterprise platforms. The devices can even trigger phone and video calls via built-in integration with Microsoft Teams2 and other virtual communication platforms. Swittons devices also come out of the box ready and automatically connect through a Wi-Fi or LTE-M cellular connection.

In addition, the Swittons platform features a flexible user portal that includes device usage dashboards and advanced, customizable analytics built in a comprehensive SaaS application foundation. Swittons can also be deployed as an OEM component to help value-added resellers connect systems and processes.

More information about each of the Swittons models is available HERE.

Closing Thoughts:

In today's fast-paced world, we are always looking for ways to save time. That's where Swittons comes in. Swittons is a line of IoT-powered smart devices that can be used in almost any environment to help you save time. So why not give them a try? You might just be surprised at how much time you can save.

Swittons is powered by the technology and expertise developed by P360. Delivering a 360-view through the pharma, physician, laboratory, manufacturing and patient ecosystem, P360 designs and deploys capabilities that ensure the highest efficiencies and returns on sales operations, data management, clinical trials, patient-centricity and IoT innovation.

References:

  1. https://iotbusinessnews.com/2020/08/19/60988-swittons-introduces-smart-iot-devices-for-pharmaceutical-lab-digital-transformation-initiatives/
  2. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software