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Ubiquitous healthcare has become possible with rapid advances in information and communication technologies. Ubiquitous healthcare will bring about an increased accessibility to healthcare providers, more efficient tasks and processes, and a higher quality of healthcare services. radio frequency identification (RFID) is a key technology of ubiquitous healthcare and enables a fully automated solution for information delivery, thus reducing the potential for human error. This chapter provides an overview of ubiquitous healthcare and RFID applications. In this chapter, the background of ubiquitous computing and RFID technologies, current RFID applications in hospitals, and the future trends and privacy implications of RFID in hospitals are discussed.

As an increasing number of organizations and individuals are dependent on mobile technologies to perform their tasks, various mobile applications have been rapidly introduced and used in a number of areas such as communications, financial management, information retrieval, and entertainment. Mobile applications were initially very basic and simple, but the introduction of higher bandwidth capability and the rapid diffusion of Internet-compatible phones, along with the innovations in the mobile technologies, allow for richer and more efficient applications. Over the years, mobile applications have primarily been developed in consumer-oriented areas where products such as e-mail, games, and music have led the market (Gebauer & Shaw, 2004). According to the ARC group, mobile entertainment service will generate $27 billion globally by 2008 with 2.5 billion users (Smith, 2004). Even though mobile business (m-business) applications have been slow to catch on mobile applications for consumers and are still waiting for larger-scale usage, m-business application areas have received enormous attention and have rapidly grown. As entertainment has been a significant driver of consumer-oriented mobile applications, applications such as delivery, construction, maintenance, and sales of mobile business have been drivers of m-business applications (Funk, 2003). By fall of 2003, Microsoft mobile solutions partners had registered more than 11,000 applications including e-mail, calendars and contacts, sales force automation, customer relationship management, and filed force automation (Smith, 2004). However, in spite of their huge potential and benefits, the adoption of m-business applications appears much slower than anticipated due to numerous technical and managerial problems.

This chapter explains the electronic media diffusion process within organizations and provides a guideline to implement electronic media within organizations. The concept of Hall’s (1976) time dimension culture, monochronic and polychronic, and two dimensions of media speed, production and interaction speed, are used to explain the media diffusion process within organizations. It suggests that the diffusion process and expected benefit of electronic media are significantly different, depending on national culture, organizational culture, and the characteristics of that medium. Therefore, careful examination and understanding of organizational time culture and the characteristics of media should be ahead of making a decision on electronic media adoption and implementation.

Ubiquitous healthcare has become possible with rapid advances in information and communication technologies. Ubiquitous healthcare will bring about an increased accessibility to healthcare providers, more efficient tasks and processes, and a higher quality of healthcare services. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a key technology of ubiquitous healthcare and enables a fully automated solution for information delivery, thus reducing the potential for human error. This chapter provides an overview of ubiquitous healthcare and RFID applications. In this chapter, the background of ubiquitous computing and RFID technologies, current RFID applications in hospitals, and the future trends and privacy implications of RFID in hospitals are discussed.