2014 NRTRC TELEMEDICINE CONFERENCE

Telehealth and Medical Management: Applications, Case Studies, and Intelligence

from RFID

Cheryl Ann Alexander, RN, CCRN, MSN/MHA Chairman/CEO

Technology & Healthcare Solutions, Inc. Greenwood, Mississippi

Lidong Wang, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Department of Applied Technology Mississippi Valley State University

March 25, 2014

CONTENTS

Telehealth Telemedicine Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) RFID in Medical Management RFID in Telemedicine Case Studies

TELEHEALTH

The Health Resources Services Administration defines telehealth as:

The use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support :

Long-distance clinical health care Patient and professional health-related education Public health and health administration [1].

TELEHEALTH

Telehealth technologies include [1]:

Videoconferencing The internet Store-and-forward imaging Streaming media, and Terrestrial and wireless communications

TELEMEDICINE

American Telemedicine Association (ATA)

Definition of telemedicine

The use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve patients’ health status [2].

TELEMEDICINE

Telehealth refers to a broader scope of remote healthcare services than telemedicine.

TELEMEDICINE APPLICATIONS [3]

Intensive care units (ICUs) Caring for children in clinics Caring for patients at home Rural health care Diabetic care Cardiovascular care Emergency and trauma care

TELEMEDICINE APPLICATIONS

Emergency medical services (EMS) use telemedicine to provide high-quality pre-hospital stroke treatment [4]

RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID)

RFID [5] [6] is an automated identification method relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using tags and readers

An RFID tag is an object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves

RFID SYSTEM COMPONENTS

A basic RFID system [20]

RFID SYSTEM COMPONENTS

Hardware components:

Tag

Reader

Antenna

Host computer

RFID READERS [21]

OPERATIONAL DESCRIPTION RFID [5]

RFID data transfer occurs with the connection between a tag and a reader

also known as coupling passes through the antennae on either

end

OPERATIONAL DESCRIPTION RFID [5]

SOFTWARE COMPONENTS [5]

RFID system software

RFID middleware

Host application

SOFTWARE COMPONENTS [5]

RFID MIDDLEWARE [6] [7]

RFID middleware standardizes ways of dealing with the flood of information the tiny tags produce

Sort, filter, and process data so that it can be managed in real time

Data volume is reduced and data is transmitted selectively

RFID IN MEDICAL MANAGEMENT [8-14]

Identifying laboratory specimens

Tracking personnel and patients

Monitoring patients

Tracking medical devices and potentially hazardous materials

Linking key drugs with patients and personnel

RFID IN MEDICAL MANAGEMENT [8-14]

Detecting medically significant events

RFID integrated with sensors and network can monitor the temperature of blood products

Continuously monitor the physiological status of a patient

RFID IN MEDICAL MANAGEMENT

RFID tagging hospital patients improves safety [22]

RFID IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLY CHAIN

Based on the Electronic Product Code (EPC) and the EPCglobal Network:

RFID can perform traceability of products and track all transactions from the beginning to the end of the supply chain in the pharmaceutical industry

Combats counterfeit products and protects product brands [15]

AN RFID SYSTEM IN MEDICAL MANAGEMENT

RFID-BASED TELEMEDICINE

RFID has been applied in telemedicine which employs wired or wireless communications to provide medical information and services [8]

Physicians can remotely assess and diagnose

Video and audio communications to assess the patient And the patient’s physiological data [16]

RFID-BASED TELEMEDICINE

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been used in health status monitoring [17]

The integration of WSNs and RFID systems has also opened up new opportunities in health care systems and wireless telemedicine [17]

RFID-BASED TELEMEDICINE

Health care professions in both hospitals and in the community are using telemedicine and RFID technology as new modes of health care delivery to [8] [18]:

Meet the demands of an aging population with chronic illnesses.

RFID-BASED TELEMEDICINE

Decrease the numbers of specialized physicians

Increase health care access in rural areas

CASE STUDIES

Case 1: RFID Applications in Controlling Epidemics

In 2003 Alexandra Hospital in Singapore used an RFID tracking system during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak [8].

CASE STUDIES

All patients, visitors, and staff entered the hospital using RFID ID cards so that if someone was diagnosed with SARS later, all individuals who contacted the person in the hospital could be immediately identified [8]

CASE STUDIES

Case 2: RFID Integration with Mobile Smart Phone, Wireless Sensor Network and Bluetooth [19]

Continuous monitoring and patient identification during intra-hospital or inter-hospital patient transport.

CASE STUDIES

The patient’s physiological sensor network comprises several medical sensor nodes and a control node

A mobile smart phone can be used as the control node and communicates with medical sensor nodes via Bluetooth.

Observed data will be forwarded to remote users using wide area networks.

REFERENCES

[1] http://www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/about/telehealth/

[2] The American Telemedicine Association,

http://www.americantelemed.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3333 Accessed 05.18.12.

[3] Cowie, M. R. and Lobos, A. A. (2012) ‘Telemonitoring for patients with heart failure’, CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 184, no. 5, pp. 509-510.

[4] http://webconferencingcouncil.com/?p=637

[5] Bhuptani, M. and Moradpour, S. (2005) RFID Field Guide, Sun Microsystems Press, New Jersey, USA.

[6] Lahiri, S. (2006) RFID Sourcebook, IBM Press.

[7] Glover, B. and Bhatt, H. (2006) RFID Essentials, O'Reilly Media, Inc.

REFERENCES

[8] Xiao, Y., Shen, X., Sun, B. and Cai, L. (2006) ‘Security and privacy in RFID and applications in telemedicine’, IEEE Communications Magazines, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp.64–72.

[9] Attaran, M. (2007) ‘RFID pays off: real benefits begin to accrue in several industries’, Industrial Engineer, Vol. 38, 11 March, pp.46–55.

[10] Shen, J., Shih, D., Chiang, H. and Lin, S. (2007) ‘A mobile physiological monitoring system for patient transport’, Journal of High Speed Networks, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.51–68.

[11] Christe, B., Cooney, E., Maggioli, G., Doty, D., Frye, R. and Short, J. (2008) ‘Testing potential interference with RFID usage in the patient care environment’, Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology, Vol. 42, No. 6, pp.479–484.

REFERENCES

[12] Schuster, E.W., Allen, S.J. and Brock, D.L. (2007) Global RFID: The Value of the EPCglobal Network for Supply Chain Management, Spring-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Germany.

[13] Agarwal, S., Joshi, A., Finin, T., Yesha, Y. and Ganous, T. (2007) ‘A pervasive computing system for the operating room of the future’, Mobile Networks and Applications, Vol. 12, Nos. 2–3, pp.215–228.

[14] Catarinucci, L., Cappelli, M., Colella, R. and Tarricone, L. (2008) ‘A novel low-cost multisensor-tag for RFID applications in healthcare’, Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 50, No. 11, pp.2877–2880.

[15] Fischer, M., Friedrich, U., Henkel, F., Masuch, J., Pangels, M. and Ziebertz, D. (2006) ‘RFID-based brand protection through support of anti-counterfeiting, unmodifiable product properties, and tracing/tracking efforts’, Microwave Engineering Europe, April, pp.12–14.

REFERENCES

[16] Ng, H. S., Sim, M. L. C., Tan, M., Wong, C. C. (2006) ‘Wireless technologies for telemedicine’, BT Technology Journal, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 130-137.

[17] Sun, B., Xiao, Y., Li, C. C. et al. (2008) “Security co-existence of wireless sensor networks and RFID for pervasive computing”, Computer Communications vol.31, pp. 4294–4303.

[18] Raviprakash, A. V., Prabu, B., Alagumurthi, N. and Soundararajan, V. (2009) ‘RFID: Rx to healthcare industry’, ICFAI Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 7-25.

[19] Shen, J.-C., Shih, D.-H., Chiang H.-S. and Lin, S.-B. (2007) ‘A mobile physiological monitoring system for patient transport’ Journal of High Speed Networks, vol. 16, pp. 51–68.

REFERENCES

[20] http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/what_is_rfid. Asp

[21] http://www.rfidsupplychain.com/Search.bok?category=RFID+Readers&

gclid=CN7x-5iqnJECFQv_sgodlVVgPA

[22] http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2007/02/20/rfid-tagging-hospital-patients-improves-safety/

Thanks!