LAS VEGAS—Clinical teams working in hospitals are constantly on the move, keeping up with urgent demands in a fast-paced environment.
Baxter International saw an opportunity to offer voice-activated, hands-free technology to make it easier for nurses and medical professionals to do their jobs on a busy hospital floor.
At the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 2025 Global Health Conference & Exhibition on Tuesday, Baxter unveiled its new Voalte Linq device, a wearable badge powered by voice-activated technology in the form of a digital assistant named "Scotty."
A nurse or other clinical team member can activate the technology by simply saying, "Hey Scotty' and then give an instruction such as "Call nurse for patient in room number 101" or can call a specific medical team member by name.
Baxter's Voalte platform is a unified digital care communications solution. The Linq device integrates with existing products in Baxter's connected care portfolio including Voalte mobile, nurse call, a hospital call bell system and precision locating, according to the company. Clinical care staff can use the voice-activated device to assign a patient in the hospital as a fall risk so Baxter's bed exit alert is armed.
With the addition of Voalte Linq, these solutions can work in tandem to help enhance communication and activate workflows across healthcare settings with speed and accuracy, according to executives.
The technology keeps teams connected in a streamlined way, enables more efficient communication and frees up clinicians' time, according to Donny Patel, president of Baxter International's connected care and technical services division.
Many clinical teams and other healthcare staff still rely on outdated systems that often result in communication delays, such as pagers, intercoms and landlines. These delays can interrupt workflows and affect patient care.
Communication failures were identified as the root cause of more than 60% of sentinel events, according to data from the Joint Commission.
The voice-activated technology also adds a safety feature for clinical staff. During critical moments, a clinical staff member can activate the Voalte Nurse Call duress workflow using voice commands or speed-dial a pre-defined number.
Baxter International has been in the healthcare market for almost 100 years, since 1931, when it bgan manufacturing prepared IV solutions. The company's portfolio has grown to include surgery and supply products, OR equipment, pharma products, diagnostics, smart hospital beds and care communications solutions.
In September 2021, Baxter acquired fellow medtech company Hill-Rom in a $10.5 billion deal to build out its digital and connected care solutions.
"Connected care is a strategic focus for the company today," Patel said on the showroom floor at HIMSS 2025.
"The portfolio has grown to the point that we could potentially outfit a room 60% to 70% with just our products. We are the only supplier in the market that has the combination of products such as bed, a nurse call, a pump, a monitor, a dashboard, a data warehouse platform, an AI platform and a voice platform all working in tandem with each other," Patel said.
The connected care group focuses on developing technology to enable devices and hospital beds to communicate with an electronic medical record system, Patel noted, and to enable clinicians to communicate with devices like a smart bed or a nurse call system.
"We are building that functionality in our products to allow us to communicate better with our devices directly using voice," Patel noted. "We are looking at it from the point of view of how do we make it simpler for [clinical care teams] to take command of their workflows."
"Connected care is not just about connecting something to Wi-Fi, it's more about how you enable a variety of workflows within a hospital," he added.