AT&T offers RFID technology for healthcare
AT&T announced the availability of a radio frequency identification tracking solution for healthcare operations, to increase visibility and safety by monitoring patients and equipment. AT&T says that it is the first network services company to provide a RFID solution for the healthcare industry.
"Health care organizations can now turn for the first time to a network services company to meet all of their RFID needs for products and services," said John Regan, VP, business marketing, AT&T.
The solution provides Wi-Fi-enabled, location-based service to track equipment, devices and patients. Staff can access the service from a Web browser and be provided with updates in real-time.
"In the demanding health care environment, enhanced visibility and accuracy regarding the location of people and critical assets is crucial to providing optimal clinical care," said Brad Hunter, director of technology solutions for the American Hospital Association. AT&T is offering the devices, infrastructure and systems needed for full-scale tracking applications - including tags, software, networks and data storage.
An alert system provided by the solution works to monitor “at risk” patients in the event that they wander, or are moved by staff, to increase patient safety. Data collected by the tracking solution can be used to manage mobile asset inventory across a single healthcare facility or multiple sites, for the purpose of alerting staff when equipment is low - or if it was just misplaced. "By introducing mobile technology, such as RFID, in the health care workplace, staff can save time, eliminate unnecessary costs, reduce theft and unnecessary inventory, and, most important, deliver better patient care,” Hunter added.
Source: Healthcare IT News
Showing posts with label RFID. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RFID. Show all posts
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
HCA North Florida Expands Its RTLS to Track Patients
The hospital group, having already deployed active RFID to monitor the whereabouts of movable assets, will use the technology to keep tabs on its patients.
After two years of testing active RFID technology for use in tracking assets at several of its hospitals, HCA North Florida Division is expanding its RFID-based real-time location system (RTLS). The organization, consisting of nine hospitals in northern Florida and eight in southern Georgia, now wants to test the technology, combined with 2-D bar-coding, to track patients. Its goal is to improve patient care, patient safety, hospital operations and workflow.
HCA North Florida is part of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), one of the country's largest providers of health-care services. Nashville-based HCA is composed of 173 locally managed hospitals and 108 outpatient centers in 20 U.S. states, as well as England and Switzerland. Founded in 1968, HCA was among the nation's first hospital companies; it currently employs about 180,000 people and reported revenues of $25.56 billion in 2006. The North Florida division is employing 433 MHz active RFID tags and readers, made by RTLS provider Agility Healthcare Solutions, to track the locations of numerous assets, including infusion pumps, wheelchairs, beds and thermometers. "We are tracking anything that moves," says In Mun, the organization's VP of research and technology.
The RFID hardware uses a proprietary air-interface protocol and is already in place at several of the organization's hospitals, though Mun declines to identify the sites involved at this time. Since deploying the RTLS, Mun says, HCA North Florida has cut the time required to locate equipment and improved the overall management of leasing contracts, equipment maintenance and warranties. "In hospitals like ours, engineers can spend more than 30 or 40 percent of their time simply looking for equipment," he explains, adding that without RFID, items are typically identified only through bar codes, which require line-of-sight reads to determine an asset's specific information, such as maintenance schedules. "And when you have hundreds of items, like we do, trying to find them all can basically be an impossible task."
The asset-tracking RTLS has enabled Mun and his colleagues to better understand RFID technology, and to determine what works best for the organization's facilities. For example, the division tested Wi-Fi-enabled RFID systems but discovered the technology wasn't the best choice. "A [Wi-Fi-based RTLS] is designed to manage a few items per access point—20 to maybe 50 items," Mun says. "But if you go into a medical service area, there might be a hundred or more items there, so that area becomes a black hole." The Wi-Fi systems Mun and his colleagues tested employed active tags requiring relatively large batteries (about the size of a credit card), making the tags too bulky to fit on thermometers and other small items. HCA North Florida also tested passive RFID, but Mun says the technology did not provide reads as reliable as those achieved with active RFID.
Source : RFID Journal - By Beth Bacheldor
After two years of testing active RFID technology for use in tracking assets at several of its hospitals, HCA North Florida Division is expanding its RFID-based real-time location system (RTLS). The organization, consisting of nine hospitals in northern Florida and eight in southern Georgia, now wants to test the technology, combined with 2-D bar-coding, to track patients. Its goal is to improve patient care, patient safety, hospital operations and workflow.
HCA North Florida is part of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), one of the country's largest providers of health-care services. Nashville-based HCA is composed of 173 locally managed hospitals and 108 outpatient centers in 20 U.S. states, as well as England and Switzerland. Founded in 1968, HCA was among the nation's first hospital companies; it currently employs about 180,000 people and reported revenues of $25.56 billion in 2006. The North Florida division is employing 433 MHz active RFID tags and readers, made by RTLS provider Agility Healthcare Solutions, to track the locations of numerous assets, including infusion pumps, wheelchairs, beds and thermometers. "We are tracking anything that moves," says In Mun, the organization's VP of research and technology.
The RFID hardware uses a proprietary air-interface protocol and is already in place at several of the organization's hospitals, though Mun declines to identify the sites involved at this time. Since deploying the RTLS, Mun says, HCA North Florida has cut the time required to locate equipment and improved the overall management of leasing contracts, equipment maintenance and warranties. "In hospitals like ours, engineers can spend more than 30 or 40 percent of their time simply looking for equipment," he explains, adding that without RFID, items are typically identified only through bar codes, which require line-of-sight reads to determine an asset's specific information, such as maintenance schedules. "And when you have hundreds of items, like we do, trying to find them all can basically be an impossible task."
The asset-tracking RTLS has enabled Mun and his colleagues to better understand RFID technology, and to determine what works best for the organization's facilities. For example, the division tested Wi-Fi-enabled RFID systems but discovered the technology wasn't the best choice. "A [Wi-Fi-based RTLS] is designed to manage a few items per access point—20 to maybe 50 items," Mun says. "But if you go into a medical service area, there might be a hundred or more items there, so that area becomes a black hole." The Wi-Fi systems Mun and his colleagues tested employed active tags requiring relatively large batteries (about the size of a credit card), making the tags too bulky to fit on thermometers and other small items. HCA North Florida also tested passive RFID, but Mun says the technology did not provide reads as reliable as those achieved with active RFID.
Source : RFID Journal - By Beth Bacheldor
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Research aims to boost RFID security, integration
ROCHESTER, NY - Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology have announced that they will begin to work on enhancing the integration of radio frequency identification into cardiac sensor networks - a wireless technology for telemedicine delivery - as well as enhancing security within these systems. The National Science Foundation’s Cyber Trust Program has given a $400,000 grant to support the research, which will be headed by Fei Hu, assistant professor of computer engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology. Hu will collaborate with Yang Xiao, professor of computer science at the University of Alabama.
The Institute believes that, due to the growth of the United States’ nursing home and long-term care populations, there is a greater need for medical monitoring. “Through this project we hope to increase the integration of RFID into existing cardiac sensor networks, ensure the overall security of the system and promote the implementation of the technology in nursing homes and adult care facilities across the country,” said Hu. Cardiac sensor networks use wireless sensors to remotely monitor a patient’s heart beating pattern and blood pressure and transfer this information to doctors and hospitals off site.
According to Hu, the networks are seen as a major avenue for increasing the quality of diagnosis and reducing the need for medical supervision. RFID technology has faced scrutiny due to issues associated with security. Hu and Xiao will research the use of anti-interference technology to reduce radio distortion of these networks and design and test new RFID security schemes that will decrease the chance of information being stolen.
They will also look to assist the overall implementation and integration of RFID to further the development of this technology in telemedicine systems. “There are well known security challenges associated with cardiac sensor networks and RFID,” Hu noted. “It is my hope this research will assist in better protecting these systems and allow greater numbers of doctors and patients to take advantage of the benefits of telemedicine.”Hu and Xiao’s team will include a number of RIT students, both graduate and undergraduate, as well as researchers from the University of Alabama’s Department of Computer Science.
Source : Healthcare IT News 09/19/07Thursday, September 13, 2007
Well .... it might be little hard to convince patient to get something under their Skin
Well .... it might be little hard to convince patient to get something under their Skin to do patient check In or tracking.
WASHINGTON, DC (September 13, 2007) --
The American Medical Association released a report that outlined the pros and cons of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags - implanted devices the size of a grain of rice that are used to store medical information. The devices could give emergency room doctors quick access to the records of chronically ill patients and reduce medical errors, the report said. But implanting the tags also may compromise patient privacy. In addition, their small size could allow them to move to other parts of the body. They may also cause interference with electrical devices such as defibrillators.Made from a microchip and a copper antenna encased in a glass capsule, the device transmits a unique 16-digit number that can be read by a handheld scanner. The number is used to locate a medical record stored on a secure Web site. VeriChip Corp. of Delray Beach, Fla., is selling kits containing scanners and the large-bore needles used to insert the chips. The company has sold about 2,500 chips worldwide for use in people, and several hundred have been implanted, including about 100 in the United States. The devices, originally developed to track livestock, have been implanted in more than six million cats and dogs to trace lost or stolen pets.
source : HIMSS News
WASHINGTON, DC (September 13, 2007) --
The American Medical Association released a report that outlined the pros and cons of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags - implanted devices the size of a grain of rice that are used to store medical information. The devices could give emergency room doctors quick access to the records of chronically ill patients and reduce medical errors, the report said. But implanting the tags also may compromise patient privacy. In addition, their small size could allow them to move to other parts of the body. They may also cause interference with electrical devices such as defibrillators.Made from a microchip and a copper antenna encased in a glass capsule, the device transmits a unique 16-digit number that can be read by a handheld scanner. The number is used to locate a medical record stored on a secure Web site. VeriChip Corp. of Delray Beach, Fla., is selling kits containing scanners and the large-bore needles used to insert the chips. The company has sold about 2,500 chips worldwide for use in people, and several hundred have been implanted, including about 100 in the United States. The devices, originally developed to track livestock, have been implanted in more than six million cats and dogs to trace lost or stolen pets.
source : HIMSS News
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)