Thursday 1 September 2011

The use of RFID technology in the ICU

中华医院管理杂志 (Chinese Journal of Hospital Administration), article in Chinese (extract; original and translated), September 2011:

Discussion (translated):
The ICU has all kinds of critically ill patients, data from intensive care monitoring, mobile devices, and medical waste. ICU staff faces high workload and high pressure. It is possible to take advantage of the mobility-enabling feature, flexible and convenient connectivity between people, and other positive features offered by radio frequency technology to achieve effective real-time monitoring in the ICU. The location of patients with RFID (radio frequency identification) wristbands, monitoring devices with sensing capabilities, and medical bottles and medical waste bags labeled with RFID tags can be tracked in real time via a wireless network. Such tracking will enable doctors or family members of patients to have timely visibility of patients’ treatment status and will also enable efficient and appropriate service for both patients and caregivers. Such an approach to patient care in the ICU will be not only a basis for the Internet of Things in medical matters but also a direction in the development of the digital hospital.

讨论 (原文):
ICU 病房各种危重病人多, 各种重症监护采集的数据多, 各种移动设备的种类多, 各种医用垃圾多。ICU 的医护人员工作强度高,工作压力大。可以利用射频识别技术的可移动性, 接人灵活方便等特点,对病房进行有效的实时监控; 带有 RFID (射频识别标识) 腕带的病人, 带有传感设备的各种监护仪器, 贴有 RFID 标签的药瓶和医用垃圾袋, 均可通过无线网络的定位功能进行实时跟踪,使医生或患者家属时刻掌握病人的治疗情况, 为病人及医护人员提供快速, 准确的服务。这将是医疗物联网的建设基础, 也是数字化医院发展的方向。

Source:
陈敏亚, 刘仕福 (Chen M, Liu S). 射频识别技术在重症监护病房的应用 (The use of RFID technologies in the ICU) [in Chinese]. 中华医院管理杂志 (Chinese Journal of Hospital Administration) 2011; 27(9):703–704.



Note:
The first author of this article was from the Affiliated Wuxi People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (南京医科大学附属无锡市人民医院), where the Cadi SmartSense wireless temperature monitoring system was installed in one of the ICUs.