German Diabetes Clinic relies on Epson

According to a study by the German Centre for Diabetes Research, around 6 million people[1] live with diabetes in Germany alone. Although men and women are almost equally affected, the risk of illness rises significantly with age.

By 2030, the study anticipates that the number of people affected by diabetes will increase to 8 million, which is almost 10 per cent of the total population.

The Diabetes Clinic, founded in 1983, is an emergency hospital for people with diabetes mellitus and is recognised as a specialist treatment facility. In addition to the clinic itself, the Diabetes Centre also comprises a Diabetes Academy, a Research Institute and an independent diabetes practice. The building has over 155 beds and treats more than 20,000 people every year. When it comes to equipping its many offices and training rooms, the Institute relies on Epson print and projection technology.

One of the most important and effective methods in the treatment of diabetes is a patient's own behaviour. Providing diabetes sufferers with feedback and information on their behaviour is one of the main areas of focus of the varied training facilities at the clinic. As well as patient training sessions, the programme also includes seminars for employees and individual tuition on a wide range of topics. In order to convey this varied content efficiently, the clinic has installed Epson's EB-1900 projectors in all eight training rooms as well as a G-series projector in its large lecture hall.

"We have been using Epson projectors since the early 2000s," explains Daniel Schleßmann, IT Area Manager of Diabetes-Klink Bad Mergentheim GmbH & Co KG. "We did experiment with solutions from other providers, but in the end it didn't pay off. Epson simply gives a better projected image."

Training sessions in particular, where patients receive information about topics such as diet, exercise and handling diabetes on a day-to-day basis, are heavily influenced by what patients learn from one another. Presentations are also provided with comments or notes, which are then collated and saved and made available afterwards.

In addition to the standard projector, an interactive EB-1400 short-throw projector is also being trialled in one of the rooms. This, together with the connected Epson multimedia board, enables data to be processed electronically and saved.

"The data always has to be saved immediately, because otherwise the training sessions would be interrupted," explains Schleßmann, "I am able to save data using the EB-1400 and multimedia centre without causing a disruption."

"We haven't quite reached our goal with our presentations," admits Mr Schleßmann, "we are currently in the process of converting our training slides to Full HD and interactive content. This is taking some time but opens up a whole host of new opportunities for improving our training sessions. Our aim in the medium-term is to still have interactive short-throw projectors with Full HD resolution or higher (e.g. WUXGA) running in our training sessions."

The clinic's IT department has made the projector extremely easy to use for all participants. And the consistent setup of the rooms with identical equipment helps the lecturers. The rooms are also equipped with easy-to-access, modern interfaces, such as HDMI, for connecting notebooks and other data sources. Mr Schleßmann is pleased with the simple maintenance of the devices: "In addition to the high image quality of the Epson projectors, the lamp life is also good. Out of all the projectors we use, only one lamp has had to be replaced in the last two years, even though we use the equipment a lot."

As well as converting the presentation formats, another project is also underway in the building. The IT department at the clinic is on the look-out for suitable document cameras.

"Because patients share their experiences in the training sessions, we still need a system with which printed documents can be easily digitised, comments manually added and the document digitally stored," says Mr Schleßmann.

The specific requirements for hospitals are also important with this kind of solution because medical records are particularly sensitive and subject to a certain level of protection. This is why, for example, WLAN networks are excluded for data transfer. Despite this, it must be possible to transfer data from the camera to a user-defined folder on the internal hospital network at the touch of a button.

A total of 66 of Epson's WorkForce Pro printers and multi-functions take care of the daily print requirements of the offices. All print in colour and print the usual office documents on standard paper: letters, orders, invoices etc.  For patient records, which are A3+ size, the clinic uses the WorkForce Pro WF8590DWF. And, thanks to their good colour quality, pre-printed documents are a thing of the past.

"Today we print all the documents ourselves," says Mr Schleßmann. "This means we no longer have to farm out print orders for preprints to external print shops, so don't have to wait for the prints or deal with costly storage any more. This makes us much more flexible now."

The printers are generally located close to the workstation, not only to ensure that employees don't have to go very far and interruption is kept to a minimum but also because sensitive data like patient records should never be unattended. And because the printers are often very close to the workstation, the lack of fine dust particles is also important. Another particular advantage of the WorkForce Pro inkjets is the consumables.

"We used to have to keep around 30 complete but different toners and ink sets in stock. Now we just have one ink set that is suitable for every printer and needs to be available in a comparatively smaller quantity – perhaps around 10-20 cartridges." The clinic is also saving money with the inkjets because the laser printers required replacement of the entire drum unit. "That cost us roughly the same as a full set of cartridges today," adds Mr Schleßmann.

The print volume of the WorkForce Pros in the clinic vary greatly. Some print up to 20,000 pages a month, but for others it is comparatively less, perhaps a thousand pages. The WorkForce Pros manage all the tasks without a problem. During the past two years that the clinic has been relying on Epson print technology, there have been no more than two minor malfunctions – this is excellent compared to the figures for laser printers. There has also been a noticeable reduction of power consumption.

Mr Schleßmann adds: "There used to always be a load peak in our power network around 11am, which we were unable to explain for a long time. Today we know that the doctors start printing their patient data at this time and the peak was simply the point at which the laser was heating up. When 20 or more printers suddenly take up to 2kW from the power network, we notice it. Once the inkjets had been installed, this problem suddenly disappeared – fantastic. We are very happy with all our Epson devices."