In December 2009, Vodafone announced the creation of a mobile health unit that would work on mobile healthcare solutions. Last week Telefonica – O2's parent – launched a global e-health unit. And now Orange (which has had a dedicated healthcare division for four years) has announced Orange smartnumbers, a healthcare-specific service that's designed to give callers instant access to the best placed person or team available.
Orange smartnumbers automatically routes calls to available numbers. For example, if a doctor is unable to answer a call, it will be diverted to the appropriate colleague or team.
Martin Stiven, VP of Business at Orange UK's parent Everything Everywhere, said "We are extremely proud to be the first UK operator offering this valuable service to the healthcare sector. We believe that there is huge potential for mobile communications to help the UK healthcare industry to provide better services to the public and increase efficiencies at the same time. As part of Everything Everywhere, Orange is committed to working with the very best partners to deliver pioneering new services such as Orange smartnumbers. Our relationship with Resilient Networks plc is only the first step in our drive into the healthcare market. With Resilient, Orange will be providing the technology to meet the needs of patients, professionals, managers and IT administrators, and public and private health providers alike."