RFID increasingly becoming an important player in the health care sector. Here we look at two specific RFID applications for this vertical.
Without the manufacturer adding security options, standard RFID technologies are not yet suitable for secure proximity identification in health care applications as they can be subject to skimming, eavesdropping, and relay attacks. An attacker can beat the system by simply relaying the communication between the legitimate reader and token over a greater distance than intended.
But that doesn’t mean that RFID has no role to play in the health care industry. On the contrary, it’s increasingly becoming an important player in the sector. Here we look at two specific health care applications of RFID.
Solutions to protect aging population: The issue of aging population and the need to care for the elderly has given rise to the certain specific uses for RFID technology. Chad Parris, President of Security Risk Management Consultants elaborated on this.
“Patient wandering systems are common-place in such environments [care homes],” Parris said. “The use of RFID tags and wrist bands that energize a sensor near a door to lock it down to prevent the patient from exiting is being used.”
Ensuring medicine security: RFID is a crucial technology in ensuring security in the supply chain. With an ever-high demand for medicines across the globe, pharmacists in charge of ensuring those medications are delivered on time and are optimal of patients.
The hospital pharmacy can provide a logical step in the journey to reduce regulatory exposure, improve patient safety, decrease clinical workflow interruptions and reduce pharmacy staff labor requirements. The challenge to achieving medication inventory goals is an objective that is nearly impossible to meet in an environment filled with manual processes, little visibility, and few automation tools.
According to a white paper published by MEPS Real-Time, today’s pharmacies have access to RFID solutions to provide fast, automated data capture of all elements of the kit and tray replenishment process including machine verification of approved formulary and PAR levels and associated medication data including name, concentration, dose, package volume, lot number, and expiration.