Radio frequency identification (RFID) in pervasive healthcare

Abstract

Active and passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology are available and licensed for the use in hospitals, and can be used to establish highly reliable pervasive environments within healthcare facilities. They should not be understood as competing technologies and complement each other when intelligently integrated in compact frameworks. This paper describes the state-of-the-art of RFID technology and the current use in the healthcare industry, and points out recent developments and future options.Biographical notes: Christoph Thuemmler is a Consultant Physician with the Scottish NHS who has worked in healthcare systems in Germany, the USA and the UK. He is also a Visiting Reader at the Centre for Distributed Computing within Edinburgh Napier University. Apart from clinical work in general internal medicine, acute and geriatric medicine he has a research interest in patient flow dynamics, real time computing, radio frequency identification and smart system integration.William J Buchanan leads the Centre for Distributed Computing within Edinburgh Napier University. He has extensive research experience in distributed systems, mobile networks, pervasive healthcare, simulation tools, digital forensics and security, and has published over 25 academic books. He has also won several awards for his work with knowledge transfer, and works within several application domains, including healthcare and policing.Amir Hesam Fekri is a research associate with the Centre for Distributed Computing and Security, Napier University. He is currently undertaking an MSc in Advanced Networking. His research interests include RFID systems, wireless networks, security and forensic computing.Alistair Lawson is a Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University's School of Computing, and a Member of the Centre for Distributed Computing and Security. His research and knowledge transfer interests revolve around applying software engineering, computer intelligence, and distributed computing and security methodologies and technologies to the fields of healthcare, applied data analysis and visualisation, spoken language systems, and e-learning and e-publishing systems.

RFID Technology: Implications for Healthcare Organizations

“…Any discrepancies that occur in handling and treating patients could be very risky for the organization. Not only could the discrepancy result in lost revenue due to tarnished reputation and loss of business, but it could result in increased cost due to poor resource utilization and litigation risk (Thuemmler et al 2009). Further, the system may have bugs that need to be resolved which normally occur after the initial implementation of the system.…”

“…Also, there is a fear of making the first move to use RFID in healthcare until standards are established for the technology. In other words, it is a common reaction for some organizations to resist adopting a new technology that requires extensive training, new skill development, added responsibilities and stiff learning curves (Thuemmler et al 2009). Also, it can be frustrating for employees who need to live up to management's expectation of performance improvement resulting from the new technology.…”

Acceptance of E-Prescriptions and Automated Medication-Management Systems in Hospitals: An Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model

“…A number of studies have been carried out in a health care environment (Chau and Hu 2002;Hu et al 1999;Thuemmler et al 2009), often with significant results.…”

“…The use of new technologies normally implies changes in the way tasks are carried out, sometimes generating reticence in those involved. Health care personnel are faced with acquiring new skills on a steep learning curve (Thuemmler et al 2009), which is not always in line with the way they usually work. This can be frustrating for managers; after they have invested in new technologies, they may find these technologies rejected by reticent heath care personnel.…”

Classification of Pervasive Healthcare Systems

“…This is an extension of previous definition of pervasive healthcare from [6] as PHT is not only presented to anyone, at anytime and in anywhere, but also autonomously and unobtrusively. An earlier PHT experience used video-telephony installations [7] to provide live and interactive video communications through POTS (plain old telephone service) for its wide availability and relatively low costs [8]. Using video-telephony, healthcare professionals can review therapies and provide support in realtime.…”