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Feature
of the Month:
In this issue:
| Feature:
RFID Brings Value
to Healthcare Supply Chain and
Patient Safety
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The numbers are astounding – and the stakes
couldn’t be higher for consumers, pharmaceutical
manufacturers and retailers. Up to 7% of all drugs
in the supply chain may be counterfeit. The retail
and pharmaceutical markets must absorb more than $2
billion in product returns each year caused by overstocked
or outdated products. And the industry, faced with
some 1,300 recalls in 2001 alone, is seeing pressure
from the FDA to better monitor the U.S. drug supply
from “manufacture to medicine cabinet.”
The market is looking to RFID to solve these problems.
Accenture, which has assembled a “Pharma
Jumpstart Program” for RFID with 14 retailers,
distributors and manufacturers, estimates that RFID-based
solutions may save the industry more than $8 billion
dollars by as early as 2006.
Counterfeit and “gray-market” products
top the list of priorities for government and industry
officials. The FDA is calling for electronic tracking
by 2007 to protect products moving through the drug
supply chain. Products from cholesterol medication
to baby formula have been targeted by counterfeiters,
threatening the health of consumers with bogus or
diluted products. Equally concerning is the impact
of “gray market” distribution (products
diverted to unauthorized channels) which costs companies
and their customers hundreds of millions of dollars
each year.
When dealing with high-value and expiration-dated
products, supply chain efficiencies are exponential
in light of industry-wide returns, which cost some
$2 billion each year. Creating real-time supply chain
visibility with carton and item-level RFID packaging
reduces overstocking, improves product returns processing
and expiration management, and creates a real-time
map of all products in the supply chain in the case
of a product recall.
Texas Instruments RFid Systems is working with major
pharmaceutical, hospital and retail companies on several
RFID pilots, and will provide the EPC Gen. 2 UHF tags
that the market is now mandating.
From supply chain efficiencies and protecting our
drug supply to improving patient care, RFID promises
to bring new efficiencies, protection and value to
our health care system.
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C.
Pitman Baker’s Custom RFID Solution Speeds Service
in Hospital ERs
 Emergent,
an outsourced provider of physician-based hospital emergency
room management services, based in Jackson, Mississippi,
was looking for an innovative solution to a traditional
emergency room (ER) problem – how to move patients
through the various stations of the ER more quickly, while
reducing operational costs and minimizing administrative
duties. The company turned to C. Pitman Baker & Associates,
Inc. (CPB), of Irving, Texas, developers of custom software
solutions with more than 10 years experience in the data
collection industry. CPB developed a patented software system
using Texas Instruments’ RFID tags and readers to
monitor patients’ progress through the ER, providing
Emergent with a reporting mechanism that allows its managers
to make important staffing decisions and changes to ER processes.
When a patient enters an Emergent-managed hospital ER, a
staff member starts a new patient record, or chart, tagged
with a TI 13.56 MHz smart label, that will move with the
patient as he is taken to different areas of the ER –
from intake, to triage, on to X-Ray, and beyond. At intake,
in a two-step registration process, the RFID-enabled chart
is programmed with the patient’s name, and a computer
record is generated at the main nurse’s monitoring
terminal, indicating the time that the person has entered
the ER.
As the patient is moved, hospital staff place the chart
in RFID-enabled bins attached to the door of each station,
and a place, date and time stamp is added to the patient’s
online record. In order to keep the patient moving and to
identify any bottleneck areas in the ER, Emergent can configure
an alarm to sound at the nurse’s monitoring station
if any patient remains at one station beyond a specified
length of time. When the patient reaches the final station,
his record is automatically marked as discharged, and the
RFID-tagged chart is assigned to the next incoming patient.
There may be 200 or more active patient charts moving through
an ER at any given time. CPB’s RFID system allows
hospital staff to see how long patients reside in one location
within the ER, as well as to provide a permanent time record
of each patient’s emergency room experience. Traditionally,
ER staff did not have any means to collect this information,
and RFID allows them to do so without adding tedious record-keeping
or paperwork. As charts are moved with the patients, the
custom solution automatically collects this information,
allowing Emergent to more easily manage staffing and make
critical adjustments that improve efficiency, as well as
the patient’s ER experience.
For more information on this application, please contact
Paul Stanley, director of sales & marketing, C. Pitman
Baker & Associates, Inc. at 972-579-1642 ext. 27 or
paul.stanley@cpbinc.com
or visit the company’s Web site at www.cpbinc.com.
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Georgetown
University Hospital Begins Blood Bank RFID Pilot Study
 Precision
Dynamics Corporation (PDC), a global leader in automatic
wristband identification, and Georgetown University Hospital's
(GUH) Blood Bank began a pilot study on March 1 to explore
how RFID wristband solutions increase the efficiency and
reliability of blood transfusion safety.
For more than two years, GUH's Outpatient Infusion Service
has used PDC bar code solutions as standard practice for
double-checking and verifying blood transfusions. Today,
GUH is interested in learning whether RFID solutions can
increase the efficiency and reliability of transfusion safety
in instances where bar code ID isn't as effective.
"Bar code identification solutions are very valuable
to institutions like GUH," said Dr. S. Gerald Sandler,
Director of Transfusion Medicine at Georgetown University
Hospital. "However, RFID technology offers the promise
of improving the efficiency and reliability of conventional
double checks for matching blood transfusions with the correct
patient."
To ensure positive patient identification, PDC's Smart Band(R)
Wristband System acts as a portable, dynamic database that
carries patient information to be used and updated during
a patient's stay. Smart Band's accurate, automated system
ensures the integrity of information between patient, host
device, and/or hospital information system. Unlike bar code,
RFID's non-line-of-site data transmission can be read through
and around the human body, clothing, bed coverings and non-metallic
materials.
"We expect this study to show that RFID solutions complement
bar code technologies and increase the efficiency and reliability
of identifying patients, their blood samples and their intended
blood for transfusion," adds Dr. Sandler.
PDC's Smart Band contains an embedded Texas Instruments'
Tag-It(TM) 13.56 MHz smart label inlay. The RFID labels
will be printed and encoded using Zebra Technologies’
R402 RFID printer encoder. AMTSystems PatientSafe(TM) Transfuse
RFID and Transfuse ID transfusion software system will also
be used in the study.
The initial phase of the study, which consists
of laboratory reviews and validation of the equipment began
on March 1. The research phase and clinical implementation
began two to three weeks after completion of the initial
phase. The study will evaluate and compare the effectiveness
and efficiency of bar code ID and RFID
solutions during blood transfusions of 100 patients. A key
research instrument will consist of evalu ations
by nurses using both technologies.
The study has been reviewed and approved by GUH's Institutional
Research Board. For further information on the study or
on PDC RFID solutions, call 818-897-1111 x1320 or visit
www.pdc-rfid.com.
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French
Army Tracks Emergency Equipment With TI-RFid Tags
The French army has chosen Texas Instruments’
RFID technology to identify and track emergency survival
equipment such as life rafts and life jackets. The system,
designed by Verger Brun Tracemed of France, will help the
military forces more effectively manage their inventory,
ensuring that the proper equipment is in the right place
at the right time.
For this mission critical application, the French army is
using TI’s 13.56 MHz laundry tags designed to withstand
exposure to chemicals, high temperatures and other harsh
industrial processes. Unlike bar codes or paper labels,
these RFID tags are unaffected by water, dirt, mud, or other
environmental conditions, and meet stringent IP 68 environmental
ratings.
Fully compatible with ISO 15693, the tags offer 2,000 bits
of data storage and can be easily updated with information
such as date of manufacture, service or maintenance records,
or other specifications. Verger Brun Tracemed can easily
embed these ultra-thin tags into the French army’s
assets, from clothing to emergency equipment, creating a
more efficient system to identify and track these items
using its TRACEMAT© software.
In order to work with the French army, Verger Brun Tracemed
obtained NATO approval for TI’s rugged laundry tag
(code RF-HDT-DVBB-NO). This rating allows NATO member countries
to use this technology in other military applications, as
well.
For more information, please contact Verger Brun Tracemed
at +33 4 50 48 20 65 or visit www.tracemed.net.
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Verger
Brun Tracemed Uses RFID and Wireless for Emergency Patient
Care
French systems integrator Verger Brun Tracemed
has developed a system using TI’s RFID tags to improve
patient treatment during emergencies, including major accidents,
terrorist attacks, or natural disasters.
The system allows instant recording of a patient’s
complete medical condition and treatment information on
an RFID wristband as they are treated at the emergency site
or in an ambulance. The patient’s information can
also be sent to the hospital by radio link using GPRS, Tetrapol,
or satellite providing hospital staff access to details
on injuries and treatment before the patient arrives, allowing
faster and more accurate medical response. The RFID system
is designed to replace handwritten paper records or barcodes,
which can be misread, lost or easily damaged.
Each patient is fitted with a wristband containing a Texas
Instruments’ 13.56 MHz RFID inlay, enabling the medical
data to be carried with each patient and updated on the
fly. Medical and treatment information is written to and
read from the RFID tags using mobile PCs or PDAs featuring
Verger Brun Tracemed’s TRACEMED© software, which
manages the storage and transmission of the data. Using
Bluetooth technology, the PDAs are linked to the ambulance’s
communications system, as well as to mobile medical equipment
such as electrocardiographs, or blood pressure and blood
gas analysers, allowing medical data to be downloaded and
stored to the wristbands as part of the patient’s
file. For patient safety, all of this information is password
protected.
Handheld PDAs also improve the quality of patient care by
giving medical staff immediate access to databases of treatment
protocols, drugs and toxicology. With 2-way data communication
with the hospital, staff can make important decisions about
the course of treatment before the patient even arrives
at the hospital.
For more information, please contact Verger Brun Tracemed
at +33 4 50 48 20 65 or visit www.tracemed.net.
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