全球无线电频率识别(RFID) market for healthcare is expected to soar to a market worth of nearly $4.9 billion by 2022, according toGrand View Research。Behind the explosive growth: the value and efficiency RFID technology promises to bring to healthcare organizations and the added level of security and safety it promises to bring to patients.
RFID representsa broad category encompassing many types of smart labels。根据Marsha Frydrychowski的说法，为标签制造商带来营销努力Resource Label Group, the technology offers “potentially limitless applications for driving accuracy and value for the healthcare industry. As hospitals, labs and entire supply chains adopt RFID technologies, they become smarter. They are able to track and trace every blood sample or pallet of medication. They have real-time visibility into inventory. They’re able to monitor the temperature of heat-sensitive drugs throughout the supply chain. In the end, smart labeling provides another layer of visibility, efficiency and, ultimately, patient safety to the healthcare industry.”
RFID labeling can drive value for hospitals through diagnostic testing, movement of samples and pharmaceuticals, medication dispensing and patient care. Smart labeling, says Frydrychowski, “could benefit the entire healthcare industry — every healthcare organization from diagnostics labs to primary care offices to the pharmaceutical supply chain could benefit from end-to-end traceability, improved productivity and better inventory management.”
RFID could also address the critical issue of medical errors, that according to recentMayo Clinic research, represent the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. Here, RFID could engineer greater process accuracy. Smart label technology that tracks and traces pharmaceuticals and blood samples throughout the hospital could ensure that every patient receives the right diagnosis and the right medication, without fail.
那会怎么工作？每个RFID标签都有一个唯一的标识号，它将被分配给特定产品并输入医院的数据库，使得难以复制。因为某些RFID标签可以每秒快速阅读700个产品，所以医院将获得准确性而不会减少生产率。
当所有药物都被RFID标记时，护士或医生可以快速阅读标签，验证产品的真实性，并确定它是否被分配给合适的患者。除了预防患者伤害的主要目标之外，安全的RFID认证也可以打击假冒药物。
‘Smart cabinets’ to improve hospital inventory management
According to a recent红衣主教调查, more than three-quarters of hospital staff still rely on inefficient, manual supply chain management and many respondents rated their visibility into inventory as low. More than half of hospital administrators cited cost management as the key to their organization’s success.
Automating inventory tracking with smart labels and smart cabinets not only streamlines in-hospital supply chain management but could also help hospitals save money.
在实践中，例如，当时药物或产品进入医院的那一刻，它被标记为RFID智能标签并放入医院的数据库。然后将产品放入smart cabinets, which sync with the hospital’s inventory management system. When authorized personnel go to retrieve a product, they can immediately locate in which cabinet and on which shelf the product is. The reader will let them know whether the product they took is the oldest available product to ensure products get used before they expire. Because the smart cabinets keep a real-time inventory count, fewer labor hours are spent manually counting inventory, re-ordering products and managing expired and recalled products.
Frydrychowski believes this change to inventory management can have “huge budget ramifications.” She points to this example: After implementing RFID tracking, Adventist Health White Memorial in Los Angeles将手册库存减少了67％，每年节省估计120,000美元by using products prior to expiration.
When RFID first emerged as a track-and-trace option, it received considerable attention, but its costs and limitations hindered its use. Frydrychowski sees that changing. “While we’re at the infancy of healthcare and pharmaceutical applications for smart labeling, smart labeling itself is a mature technology. RFID technology is ready today for healthcare organizations to plug into their existing processes to drive productivity, reliability and savings.”
她指出,使用技术要求the RFID tags, information processing system, readers and software to work in tandem to achieve goals such as real-time inventory tracking or a more accurate authentication process.
[Editor's note: This article originally ran on Healthcare Packaging on Feb. 4, 2019.]
