U.S. Reproductive Health Research Center uses RFID technology to ensure the accuracy of parental identity
chrispeng [ad_1]
Overlake Reproductive Health in Washington became the first reproductive health research center in the United States to use an RFID system to track eggs, sperm, and fertilized eggs. This system is used to ensure that there will be no identity confusion errors during the collection, storage and insemination of sperm and eggs.
Here, the woman of an infertile couple can accept the sperm provided by the donor for artificial insemination; or inseminate her eggs in a test tube, and then transplant them into her womb. In these two procedures, customers will always worry that their sperm or eggs will be accidentally confused with other people’s, leading to the birth of other people’s children. Although such mistakes rarely happen, once they occur, it is indescribable to cause mental and spiritual trauma to parents; the hospital must be held legally responsible for this, and the public image of the hospital is also negatively affected.
Before the introduction of the RFID system, like other artificial insemination medical institutions, Overlake could only rely on the seriousness of the staff to ensure the accuracy of the sample’s identity. After the doctor completes the sperm retrieval or egg retrieval process for infertile couples, the test tube in which the sperm or egg is placed will be marked with the name of the person being retrieved; if the test tube is placed in another container, the container should also be marked with the name again. This process usually involves two workers manually checking the names to prevent errors. This mechanism has been working well, said Shaun Kelly, director of Overlake Labs, but patients still feel uneasy.
After the introduction of the IVF Witness RFID system, the staff gave each patient an ID card containing a 13.56 MHz RFID chip, which conforms to the ISO 15693 standard. At the front desk, the staff enters the patient’s data, an RFID reader reads the ID card number, and the ID number is correlated with the patient’s data.
Put the removed sperm or egg in a container, and place them on the bottom of the container
RFID tags
. The staff then puts the container on a reader, and enters the corresponding patient name for the sample according to the system prompts. IVF Witness associates the ID number of the container label with the donor, so that the ID number of the container label is also recorded in the same patient account. When the sperm or egg is sent to the laboratory for processing, it goes through several processing procedures, each of which is equipped with an RFID reader. Among them, the sperm laboratory is equipped with three readers; the fertilized egg laboratory has 2 (the eggs are fertilized and cultivated here); there is a reader in the operating room (here the eggs are retrieved and the sperm or fertilized eggs are implanted) Maternal).
Container with RFID tag
In each process, the container containing the sperm or egg is placed on a plate equipped with an RFID reader, and the reader reads the ID number of the container tag. The IVF Witness system reads the patient’s account. If the ID number of the sample tag is not registered under the patient’s account, the system sends an audio alarm and displays a red stop signal on the screen. After that, the system will not restart operation unless a reason is entered into the system.
“The patient is very satisfied with this,” Kelly said. Overlake retains the original manual identification and two staff members to authenticate the patient’s identity, and the introduction of the RFID system adds a layer of security. ”
This system is more expensive, Kelly said, at about $60,000. Overlake Reproductive Health had to share a portion of the cost to the patient, and the patient was happy to accept the new safety measures.
This equipment has been tested and will not cause any harm to sperm or eggs.
[ad_2]
