The Sync Badge is here – hands-free, wearable hospital communication

4-minute read

Quick, reliable hands-free communication. Workflow efficiency. Dedicated panic button. All in one wearable device.

In Q1 2025, Stryker announced the launch of the Sync Badge – a hands-free, wearable communication device that helps enhance workflow efficiency in dynamic, hands-on patient care environments.

Inspired by nurses, the Sync Badge is well suited for areas of the hospital where the work is physical and hands-on: positioning or lifting patients, participating in patient procedures, carrying or transporting medical equipment. Think of care areas like the emergency department, surgery, labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care and even a busy MedSurg unit where a patient’s condition can change in an instant, driving a need to communicate fast.

Quick, reliable collaboration

In hands-on nursing care, being able to communicate and collaborate with a team is absolutely essential. When you need to call an emergency code, call for equipment, or call for help, you should always feel connected to the people you rely on.
Smartphones absolutely have a place, but hands-on care can sometimes make their use challenging. Picture a scenario where your hands are on a patient – especially if you’re wearing PPE – and you need help right away.

Imagine yourself pulling out a smartphone, unlocking it, logging into an app and searching for a name in a directory. Sometimes it’s just not an option. How many times have you heard someone yelling down the hall in such a situation?

The Sync Badge is different.

With the Sync Badge, you can communicate as easily as you speak. Say, “Okay Vocera” to wake up the hands-free communication device, worn just below the neckline on a clip or lanyard, and use voice commands to reach contacts by name, role, group or extension. Urgently broadcast to team members for assistance or to assemble a rapid response team. Page a user or group. Call people who are outside the hospital. Make, receive, transfer and forward calls – all without taking your hands or eyes off the patient. (If you need additional privacy during a call, you can hold the Sync Badge to your ear, and it automatically switches to handset mode.)

The Sync Badge is part of our enterprise workflow platform that includes not only hands-free, wearable communication devices – but also options for smartphones and desktop workstations. This means you can communicate seamlessly with team members across units and roles whether they use a Sync Badge, a smartphone, a VoIP or landline phone or a pager.

Workflow efficiency

Traditional ways of receiving alarms and critical lab results or STAT order notifications can sometimes be impractical for fast-moving, hands-on situations. Instead, you can receive alarms, critical lab results and/or STAT order notifications directly on the Sync Badge, alleviating the need to continually check the EHR (and sometimes a printer) and helping to avoid page-and-wait communication bottlenecks.
For example, think of an emergency department where a patient requires a type and screen blood test before going to surgery. The physician or a delegate enters orders into the EHR for a STAT type and screen. Traditionally, the nurse responsible for coordinating the test would somehow find out that the patient needs it. In some hospitals, the order sits in the EHR until someone sees it, introducing a point of delay.

The lab performs the test and somebody enters the result in the EHR, where it waits for the nurse to retrieve it. Another point of delay.
Meanwhile, Surgery may wait to come get the patient until they know the test results are available. So the nurse has to look in the EHR and communicate back with Surgery. This may happen multiple times for a single patient.

Each point of delay can hold up care decisions that determine where the patient will go next.

The Sync Badge addresses this by integrating with the EHR through our intelligent Vocera Engage middleware, reducing the need for the nurse to keep checking the EHR for results.

In addition to integrating with the EHR, the Sync Badge can also integrate with lab systems (and nurse call systems, connected beds and more) through Engage. As another example, in mother-baby or labor and delivery units, critical results of tests like hemoglobin, platelet count or elevated liver enzymes can be sent directly to the nurse taking care of the patient, and even to the provider.

Dedicated panic button

All healthcare workers must feel safe and be safe.

The Sync Badge has a dedicated panic button you can discreetly press in a moment of distress to quickly open a communication channel with your facility’s response or security team. Responders can hear what’s happening, and can locate you even if you’re unable to speak. In a less emergent situation, you can use voice commands to broadcast to nearby colleagues for assistance.

Learn more

Stryker is one of the world's leading medical technology companies. Alongside our customers around the world, we impact more than 150 million patients annually. To learn more about the latest in hands-free, wearable hospital communication, visit the Sync Badge product page.