Real-Time Person Identification in a Hospital Setting: A Systematic Review

Abstract

In the critical setting of a trauma team activation, team composition is crucial information that should be accessible at a glance. This calls for a technological solution, which are widely available, that allows access to the whereabouts of personnel. This diversity presents decision makers and users with many choices and considerations. The aim of this review is to give a comprehensive overview of available real-time person identification techniques and their respective characteristics. A systematic literature review was performed to create an overview of identification techniques that have been tested in medical settings or already have been implemented in clinical practice. These techniques have been investigated on a total of seven characteristics: costs, usability, accuracy, response time, hygiene, privacy, and user safety. The search was performed on 11 May 2020 in PubMed and the Web of Science Core Collection. PubMed and Web of Science yielded a total n = 265 and n = 228 records, respectively. The review process resulted in n = 23 included records. A total of seven techniques were identified: (a) active and (b) passive Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) based systems, (c) fingerprint, (d) iris, and (e) facial identification systems and infrared (IR) (f) and ultrasound (US) (g) based systems. Active RFID was largely documented in the included literature. Only a few could be found about the passive systems. Biometric (c, d, and e) technologies were described in a variety of applications. IR and US techniques appeared to be a niche, as they were only spoken of in few (n = 3) studies.

Review of Smart Hospital Services in Real Healthcare Environments

“…The most actively used IoT-based technology is RFID systems, which are used for people, buildings, and medical devices, and research on the use of mobile near-field communication (NFC) systems has also been carried out [28][29][30][31][32]. A study at an academic medical center in the United States investigated the use of a system in which a patch is attached to patients in the intensive care unit that sends an alarm to nurses through the dashboard.…”

Analysis of Managers’ Perception Regarding the Use of Traceability Tools in the Context of Brazilian Health

“…It thus considered the traceability tools a promising tool for process standardization and regularization of actions within the hospital environment. 9,10,7 However, some publications diverge from this view by pointing out possible dangers of traceability, which in turn can bring with it risks regarding data protection and loss of freedom of action for the traceability of people, fraudulent and ethically and morally pernicious practices. 11 The traceability practices have been conforming and gaining more and more space in the scientific literature, in such a way that it is no longer a novelty that worldwide-recognized institutions use them as a tool to maintain the quality of patient care.…”

“…6 Thus, many authors attribute to traceability the ability to manage and optimize such systems. 7,8 Some studies suggest that technologies such as Barcodes, RFID (radio frequency identification), QR Codes (Quick Response), NFC (Near Field Communication), among others are fundamental for the accomplishment of daily activities within a healthcare organization when it comes to process management. It thus considered the traceability tools a promising tool for process standardization and regularization of actions within the hospital environment.…”

“… 6 Thus, many authors attribute to traceability the ability to manage and optimize such systems. 7 , 8 …”

“…It thus considered the traceability tools a promising tool for process standardization and regularization of actions within the hospital environment. 9 , 10 , 7 However, some publications diverge from this view by pointing out possible dangers of traceability, which in turn can bring with it risks regarding data protection and loss of freedom of action for the traceability of people, fraudulent and ethically and morally pernicious practices. 11…”