Borda Technology brings active and passive RFID medical solutions to the U.S. market
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Borda Technology, a Turkish RFID innovation company, has begun to develop markets for its asset management and real-time location system (RTLS) solutions in the U.S. medical field, and this set of technologies is currently being applied in Istanbul. The company’s asset management solution uses passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) tags and handheld readers, while the RTLS solution combines passive EPC Gen 2 ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID technology and Borda’s active RFID product. Both sets of solutions use Borda’s Lighthouse software platform. Borda said it will combine RTLS and passiveRFIDThe combination of technologies is cheaper than a pure RTLS system. In a pure RTLS system, all assets use high-cost active tags, regardless of whether the items themselves have high value.
Borda is headquartered in Istanbul (Turkey) and has opened a branch in Florida (USA). Its branch company has begun to promote the Lighthouse solution for tracking, including assets and individuals (employees and patients), in order to improve hospital efficiency. So far, this Lighthouse system has been applied in the Medical Park Group Hospital in Turkey, and the two affiliated institutions of the group hospital in Istanbul have installed the system, and the other four affiliated institutions are also in the process of installing it. In the coming year, it is estimated that a total of 17 hospitals will be installed.
This Lighthouse solution uses active 433MHz RFID tags that can be attached to the patient’s wristband for real-time tracking.
In 2007, Borda Technology Company was established in Istanbul. The founders are a pair of brothers (AkinAltunbas and Erdem Altunbas), and the company’s chief technology officer (CTO) Enes Cavli. In 2003, during the Istanbul University of Technology, they began to cooperate and completed a series of RFID-based academic research projects. In 2010, Borda established a US branch at the University of South Florida Institute of Technology (USF) in Lakeland. The following year, the branch moved to the Tampa campus near USF. Borda has 28 employees, two of whom are based in Tampa, and the rest are in Turkey.
At the beginning of the company’s establishment, the founders intended to help various organizations improve operational efficiency through the development of hardware and software products. When they were developing products, Akin Altunbas said that the three people realized that “applying technology to track assets and patients in hospitals can not only help them be more efficient in business operations, but also save lives. This is our focus on medical care. The original intention of the field standardization RTLS solution development.”
Borda Technology, located in Istanbul University of Technology, and the US branch have researched and developed RFID solutions. This solution was installed for the first time in Medical Park Group Hospital, which has 17 branches across the country with 2771 beds.
In 2009, the IT department of Medical Park Hospital began to look for RTLS suppliers who could provide solutions to manage assets in the hospital. To this end, they searched for local developers in Istanbul. Then, they started working with Borda Technologies, Altunbas said that Borda suggested a hybrid solution. He explained that passive EPC Gen 2 tags are low-cost, can be placed on any assets in the hospital, and tracked according to regional settings. Borda installed 80 fixed readers and 300 antennas in Medical Park Hospital, in addition to providing 2 handheldReader, Created 80 passive tag tracking areas to identify mobile assets.
The solution uses active 433MHz RFID tags that comply with the ISO 18000-7 standard to track patients and staff. In the case of using passive RFID tags for tracking, Altunbas said the system saves labor time. It used to take 3-4 weeks in the asset inventory, but now it only takes 1-2 days, and more accurate results can be obtained. The system was first installed at Goztepe General Hospital under the Medical Park Group Hospital. At present, 17 hospitals under the group’s hospitals are undergoing installation, and the newly-built hospitals will also begin to install this passive asset management system.
In each case, Altunbas said, the hospital will use an average of 3,000 passive IQ series UHF RFID tags (provided by Omni-ID) to be affixed to assets and printed and coded by Zebra Technologies’ RZ400 RFID printer; 1,000 active tags (manufactured by Borda) for staff and patients to bring, and can also be affixed to critical, high-value equipment; 80 Motorola FX9500 and FX7400 series EPC Gen 2 UHF readers. At the same time, hospital employees also use Motorola MC3190-Z EPC Gen 2 UHF handheld readers.
For hospitals that have installed the Lighthouse Real-Time Location System (RTLS) solution, Borda will also provide Smartrac’s MiniTrack passive high-frequency NFC RFID tag, which will be affixed to the patient’s wristband (the wristband also contains an active Label). In this way, nursing staff can quickly identify patients with mobile phones or tablets equipped with NFC readers. Altunbas said that barcode wristbands are not that easy to use because they require light to work. “NFC tags are very easy to use, and fast.” He said, “All you have to do is a momentary contact.”
Lighthouse software shows the location of employees, patients, and assets
Altunbas explained that when a passive tag is installed on an asset, the ID number on the tag is associated with the asset’s serial number and other details. The data is stored in Borda Technology software and collected into the hospital’s database. Other details, such as the expiration or repair date of the asset, will also be stored in the software. When an asset moves from one area to another, the ID of the object (the tag on the asset) will be read as soon as it passes through the reader, and then the data information will be forwarded to the software platform through a wired way, and the location of the asset will be updated immediately. If the asset expires or the repair date is approaching, the system will alert the manager. The system will also determine whether the asset has passed the maintenance and standard approval date, and will issue a corresponding alarm when it is ready to be sent to the operating room.
Employees can use handheld devices to visit specific areas, find project assets, and maintain or replace them. They can also perform inventory counts in each room and move project assets to suitable locations.
After entering the hospital, each patient will get a wristband with Borda AW1020 433MHz active tag embedded, and the patient’s name and medical history will be associated with the tag ID. Borda’s RD8200 reader and LT9400 locator (if necessary equipped with an infrared transmitter) combined, by reading the ID of the tag, the position of the patient can be located in real time. If the staff needs it, they can find a certain patient for management medication at any time, and the location of the patient can be clarified on the Lighthouse software. The system can also sound an alarm every time a patient leaves the ward. If there is an emergency, the patient can press the button on the wristband label, and the software will send an alert to the medical staff in the ward. The software can also send out an alarm to the patient at the time point, and the information will be displayed on the screen of the wristband. The premise is that this instruction has been set in advance, for example, her medication time is up.
For infants and young children, an active RFID tag foot ring is placed on each newborn’s ankle to record the child’s identity information. If someone tries to lift the baby out of the newborn room in the hospital, the reader will detect that the baby has been moved and send an alert to the manager.
In addition, staff wear active RFID badges to help identify which patients need their services. In the newborn room, if a staff member wearing an authorized active RFID badge wants to carry the baby to their parents, the system will not issue a warning, but will record the situation in the software. When the baby arrives, the staff will press the button on the mother’s wristband to indicate that the child has been safely delivered to the parent.
Borda also provides Valet Management system with RTLS function. Under this system, outpatients or visitors will get a valet tag. When they are about to leave the hospital, they press the button of the tag, and the valet tag with the Borda 433 MHz active tag will pass its ID number to the Lighthouse software, and the system will calculate the location of the tag, and the person with the valet tag can do it It’s easy to find your own car.
The software can be stored on the user’s own server and can be integrated with the user’s own management system, or it can be stored on a cloud-based server provided by Borda.
CIO of Medical Park Medical Group, Adem Dogruyol, who obtained a master’s degree with “RFID in medical application” as a research topic, pointed out that Borda has designed advanced methods to deal with complex problems in hospitals, which can track almost every one in the hospital. People and all assets. Borda told Dogruyol that integrating multiple technologies into one solution is the best option for tracking hospital assets. As early as 2010, Medical Park Group has completed the installation of passive RFID readers and antennas in all its hospitals, and is increasing the application of active RFID and NFC technology to increase the visibility of the hospital.
Ahmet Usta, chief analyst of the Medical Park Hospital Group, said that since the installation of Borda’s Lighthouse RFID system, the hospital has enhanced the visualization of operation management. “They (Borda’s system) improved asset utilization and started to measure some operational parameters, such as the time it takes for a patient to be transported from the ward to the operating room.”
Borda is currently negotiating with several hospitals in the United States on the adoption of solutions for real-time personnel positioning and asset management. (Compiled by RFID World Net)
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