ALLPCB
Introduction
In recent years, system integration has been a frequent topic in security. What exactly is system integration? Which subsystems need to be integrated, and to what degree? There is no single industry standard, and implementations tend to follow specific project requirements, which leads to widely varying interpretations among vendors. Many integration efforts encounter practical problems and fail to be implemented. This article analyzes the medical sector from three perspectives: current integration status, development bottlenecks, and future trends.
1. Scope of medical system integration
System integration, guided by systems engineering methods, selects technologies and products to connect separate subsystems into a complete, reliable, economical, and effective whole that can coordinate and achieve optimal overall performance. The primary question is which separate subsystems need to be integrated.
When discussing hospital systems, people often first think of the hospital information system (HIS), which includes PACS, EMR, LIS and other clinical and administrative information systems. Are these systems integration targets for security systems? Hospital information systems are designed to support clinicians and nurses in daily work and to improve workflow efficiency. Security systems, by contrast, are intended to protect people, vehicles, and property and to create a safe environment for care. Therefore, hospital information systems have independence, specialization, and confidentiality requirements and are not directly related to hospital security systems.
Which internal hospital systems should be integration targets for security? Starting from the purpose of a security system, which is to protect people, vehicles, and property, the primary systems are video surveillance and alarm systems, followed by electronic patrol, access control systems, and parking management systems. These systems are regularly used by hospital security departments. Other systems used by nursing stations that also aim to protect people and property, such as RFID infant protection systems and drug temperature and humidity monitoring systems, should also be integrated into security systems based on their objectives; however, demand for such integration is not yet strong in many hospitals but is likely to grow. Some systems, like remote visiting, surgical teaching, and remote expert consultation, also rely on video technology but are designed to improve clinical services and maintain their own independence and confidentiality; these are generally not integration targets for security systems.
In summary, hospital security system integration should primarily cover video surveillance, intrusion alarm, access control, parking management, and electronic patrol systems, and may also include nursing-station systems such as RFID infant protection and drug temperature/humidity monitoring, although demand for the latter remains limited for now.
2. Integration content
Having defined which systems to integrate, the next questions are: what content needs to be integrated, to what degree, and how should integration be implemented? Before addressing those questions, an integration host system must be chosen: integrate within an existing system or develop a separate integration platform. Independent development is usually cost-prohibitive, so integration typically occurs on an existing platform. Which platform should host integration? The video surveillance system is the pragmatic choice based on integration difficulty and system complexity.
Video systems handle large volumes of video data and complex services. Integrating video into another system is difficult. Additionally, major video surveillance vendors in China, such as Hikvision, have in-house software development teams and corresponding security products, which contributes to choosing video surveillance as the integration host.
With the host system selected, the remaining questions are what to integrate, how deep the integration should be, and the integration approach. These are current technical bottlenecks in system integration.
(1) Integration content
The integration of video surveillance, intrusion alarm, access control, parking management, electronic patrol, and other systems aims to enable unified operation and coordinated response. Security staff currently must manage multiple subsystems separately and operate each system during incidents, which reduces efficiency and can delay responses. Integration should allow duty personnel to operate from a unified interface and enable coordinated control when incidents occur. Concretely, the video surveillance platform should support daily management of alarm, access control, parking, and patrol systems and enable cross-system linkages, for example, triggering video and access control actions when an alarm is activated.
(2) Integration depth
After defining integration content, determine the integration depth. Each subsystem has its own software and platform: should integration be deep, with device-level integration, or shallow, via platform-to-platform interfaces? Security devices vary and vendors expose different interfaces, and the industry lacks a unified standard. Video surveillance has a national standard (GB/T28181-2011) that reduces barriers between devices and platforms. Given current heterogeneity, a shallow integration approach is recommended: integrate systems through platform interfaces, while leaving device-level configuration and management to each subsystem to preserve their strengths.
(3) Integration approach
How should many disparate systems be integrated? Experience from citywide security projects shows that systems built with smaller vendors sometimes lack complete SDK interfaces or vendor support; in some cases vendors have ceased operations, making integration impossible. Based on this, hospitals are advised to select mainstream vendor equipment for security-critical systems.
Successful integration depends on three prerequisites: the development capability of the host-system vendor, the openness of subsystem vendors, and hospital staff engagement.
The host-system vendor must be able to connect third-party systems, understand various security devices, and have industry knowledge to produce a stable, usable integrated solution. Subsystem vendors must provide external SDKs or interfaces and offer remote support during integration. Hospital staff play a central role by defining real needs. Integration requires coordination and communication between the hospital and vendors: the hospital defines requirements, the host-system vendor implements integration, and subsystem vendors expose interfaces and support the work.
3. Integration trends in medical systems
Many hospitals remain at the initial stage of building individual security subsystems. Older hospitals often run systems independently, while newly built hospitals tend to plan security comprehensively, which raises integration requirements. The current integration phase sits between subsystem deployment and full fusion. Once subsystem deployment completes, integration will become the primary task and an urgent hospital requirement. When planning security, hospitals should consider future integration needs, for example by evaluating not only traditional device features but also a vendor's software development capability, familiarity with various security devices, and industry understanding.
Beyond traditional security subsystem integration, hospitals will increasingly require integration of other internal protection systems, such as infant protection and drug monitoring. This trend requires that the host-system vendor understand these internal protection systems, and this direction will drive future hospital system integration.
Typical development stages for hospital security systems are:
1. Security subsystem deployment;
2. Security subsystem integration;
3. Internal protection system integration;
4. Expanded video application services.
Most hospitals are currently in stage 1; some span stages 1 and 2; a subset is beginning to request stage 3. Stage 4 involves deeper application-level services that require vendor and hospital understanding of patient and family needs, and it may play a role in improving patient relations or expanding ancillary services.
4. Conclusion
Future security development will trend toward software-driven integration. With hardware devices largely deployed, software will be the primary means to manage and use devices and to develop industry-specific workflows. The competitive focus among vendors will shift from pure device performance to industry knowledge and customer-oriented solutions, emphasizing improved industry service capabilities.
Many small and medium-sized enterprises in the Chinese market operate broadly but lack depth in specific areas, which affects solution quality. Vendors and integrators should aim to deepen technical capabilities and industry understanding to support effective, maintainable integration in healthcare settings.
