Trekkie communicators? Beam 'em up!

Okay, sure, before some Comic-Book-Guy-wannabe points out that it should be "beam 'em down, us being Earth-bound and all. But nonetheless... badge communicators that activate with a touch and connect to someone by saying their name are no longer in the realm of sci-fi.

Vocera Communications in Cupertino, CA have been offering their communications badge for over a year now. A large portion of their customers are hospitals or health care workers. According to the Forbes.com article:

It turns out that communication in a hospital is often an amazingly inefficient affair. Nurses and doctors spend a lot of time playing phone and page tag. Nurses need approvals for treatments from doctors who often aren't easy to find. Paging the doctor usually takes several minutes, by which time a nurse may have left the station where she was waiting. Then the whole process starts over until finally one catches up with the other.

So, cross communicators off the list. Let's get to work on that holodeck technology!

(via Slashdot)