by Adi Tedjasaputra

Closed-loop RFID applications are increasingly adopted by many organisations. Better risk management, higher ROI and less technical challenges are some of the reasons for their popularity. Health care is one of the vertical industries where closed-loop RFID applications can benefit most. The critical requirement of safety always comes first in this industry. It turns out that this may not always be the case, some researchers warn.

Many have learnt the hard way about the complexity of open-loop RFID applications. The latest was the Indonesian government finding out that contactless smart card application for fuel rationing programme in Indonesia is not as simple as implementing micropayment using similar technology in Singapore or Malaysia. Beside technology challenges, the social and political cost associated with the application was not well-anticipated and calculated by the Indonesian Government. Others may not have the privilege such as the Indonesian Government to mull over almost one year before finding out about the infeasibility of such application.

Compared to open-loop RFID applications, closed-loop RFID applications may have more benefits. One of the important benefits is the possibility to execute RFID technology adoption plans according to a time frame decided solely by an organisation.

Nevertheless, closed-loop RFID applications have their own challenges. The latest study on the a closed-loop RFID application in health care, for example, has shown that Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) from RFID may induce potentially hazardous incidents in critical care medical equipment.

The study tested two RFID systems, i.e. active and passive. The passive system consisted of (1) OBID UHF Reader from Feig Electronic working in 868 MHz frequency with maximum power output of 4 W and (2) EPC Gen 2 tags in the format of adhesive labels using Texas Instruments' inlays incorporating Impinj's Monza chips. The active RFID system consisted of (1) Avonwood's Eureka-iD Wakeup Unit and Antenna working in 125 kHz frequency with magnetic flux density of 68 x 10E-3 microtesla at 1 meter and (2) Eureka-iD Asset Tag working in 868 MHz frequency at 2 microwatt.

From all the medical devices submitted to EMI tests, the study found out that the passive UHF EPC Gen 2 compliant system working at 868 MHz seemed to cause more EMI compared with the active RFID system.

The study has attracted various reactions. One of the latest is a denial asserting that EMI in the study was caused solely by RFID readers or interrogators, but not RFID tags. The author has carelessly ignored the facts and basic working principles of RFID systems, in which operational RFID tags can emit electromagnetic radiation that may cause interference, in addition to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the readers.

The study serves as a timely reminder that safety should come first, especially when the organisation planning to adopt RFID technology is in the health care business, such as hospital.

The writer is the Founder of RFID Asia - The Prominent RFID Community in Asia.


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Labels: applications, care, hazard, health, healthcare, research, rfid, study, technology

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by Adi Tedjasaputra

Healthcare RFID applications have often triggered mixed reactions due to their strong links with ethical issues, particularly the plausible intrusive applications of the technology for people. One of such applications is the implantable RFID tags on human beings.

How about digestible RFID tags?

The potential of digestible RFID tags to obtain internal physiological information, such as reaction to medicine ingestion and absorption into body can be useful. Different from some methods, such as physical body probing, body imaging, biological sample collection and ingestible cameras, the use of digestible RFID tags is expected to accurately monitor a patient's ingestion and digestion of medicine, without the use of permanently embedded equipment or cost prohibitive RFID solutions.

Regarding the digestible RFID tags, Eastman Kodak Company has filed two patent applications for monitoring ingestion of medicine comprises forming a digestible RFID tag.

More info on the patent applications is available at:

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF
&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&p=1
&S1=20070008112&OS=20070008112&RS=20070008112

and

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1
&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01
&s1=20070008113&OS=20070008113&RS=20070008113


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Labels: healthcare, rfid, tag, technology

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STMicroelectronics and Veredus Laboratories today announced that they are developing a fast, point-of-need diagnostic capability that will enable health practitioners to quickly detect strains of Avian Flu and other influenza viruses. The diagnostic capability produces results within approximately one hour of testing.

Using STMicroelectronics’ In-Check platform, Veredus is developing an application to specifically identify whether a patient is infected with the Avian Flu (H5N1) or a subtype of Influenza A or B in a single test, instead of requiring many tests, as needed currently. To be available in time for the next flu season, the single-test application will enable rapid identification of the infectious agent to limit the spread of the disease and speed patients’ treatment.

The diagnostic effort is being built on STMicroelectronics’ In-Check platform. The platform allows users to perform the complex processing and analysis of a minute sample on a single disposable chip, reducing the time and complexity of the instrumentation needed. In addition, this approach reduces the risk of cross-contamination inherent in conventional analysis methods. Results are detected by a dedicated portable reader using optical signal acquisition and processed by ST’s specialized bioinformatics software, which can be installed on any PC.

“The World Health Organization recently identified rapid detection as the first
requirement in fighting Avian flu, and ST’s leading-edge semiconductor
expertise--combined with Veredus’ expertise in Avian Flu detection--will enable new
possibilities for effective timely detection and treatment so that early containment of the infection will be possible,” said Anton Hofmeister, Group Vice-President and
General Manager for ST’s Microfluidic Division.

“We are convinced that affordable, user-friendly, and portable devices like In-Check will make a critical difference in a growing number of diagnostic applications.”
“In light of the risk of a worldwide flu pandemic, and to limit its potential global impact, we aim to provide health-care professionals with the capability to quickly differentiate Avian Flu or severe flu strains from milder strains by their subtypes,” added Dr. Rosemary Tan, CEO of Veredus. “In-Check is ideally suited to serve as a platform on which to build Veredus’ unique infectious disease panels. This combination will enable rapid diagnosis and the delivery of appropriate treatments for patients in the shortest time possible. We are actively developing chips to detect Dengue, Malaria, West Nile, Yellow Fever, Typhoid Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, and other diseases and anticipate that our products will greatly improve treatment choices.”

The Veredus application, running on ST’s In-Check platform, is expected to be commercially available to health care providers in the fall of this year.


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Labels: healthcare, rfid, stmicro, technology

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KOMPAKAR eHealth Tech Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Sistem Kompakar Sdn Bhd, is all geared to set the pace for radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging technology adoption in the local healthcare scene.

Labels: healthcare, rfid

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