Bundle solutions to cultivate the medical and electrical service market
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Medical electronic services are one of the eight industries that the government has focused on supporting. Compared with other industries such as retail, logistics, and manufacturing, the medical field will be a rising star, and Taiwanese manufacturers are already gaining momentum in this market. Taiwan’s RFID industry policy is focused on hardware, because Taiwan has a unique global high-tech manufacturing industry base, but in the high-tech supply chain, the hardware manufacturing that Taiwan’s industries have learned from, and its added value But it is not the highest. As far as the experience of cultivating international brands, Xinji Information has demonstrated the simulation of the application of RFID and barcode technology in the medical industry through the integration of “software” and “technical services” with “medical hardware products” Environments, such as nursing stations, wards, pharmacies, etc., whose integrated solutions can extend the added value of products beyond the brand.
The integration of medical and electrical service market is necessary
In the medical electronics industry, software services and background integration are mainly used to integrate various hardware such as medical equipment, handheld tablets, barcode scanners/listing machines, and RFID readers to meet the needs of each service block application. .
The Necessity of RFID and Wireless Communication Integration
Regarding RFID technology alone, the current classifications include:
1. Application of active and passive RFID;
2. The frequency band used will have low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and ultra high frequency (UHF).
In addition, applicable RFID standards include:
1. ISO 18000-2, 18000-3, 18000-4, 18000-6 and 18000-7,
2. In addition, the two standards ISO 24730-2 and ISO24730-5 of the real-time positioning system RTLS cannot be ignored;
3. Of course, the most familiar ISO 14443, 15693 and EPCglobal Gen 2 standards.
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Figure 1. The concept of “Medical Electronics Hardware Products” presented at the Taipei Computex exhibition this time
Moreover, many applications in the medical industry need to be supplemented with one-dimensional and two-dimensional bar codes. In addition to the maturity of the wireless network architecture of the current hospitals, RFID devices can also be transmitted wirelessly (for example: bluetooth, WiFi, Ultra-wideband) (UWB), GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3G) technical communication materials, and must be matched with different application environments and conditions to evaluate the most suitable solution.
Chain of custody promotes integrated application of RFID and barcode
As the quality of medical care continues to be valued by the public, the RFID application field of medical electronics can be divided into anti-counterfeiting, medication safety, inventory management, asset management, personnel management and access control management, etc., which are like Wal-Mart’s requirements for supply. Manufacturers generally use RFID, and the US FDA also promotes the so-called e-Pedigree. The FDA requires the pharmaceutical industry to develop a “pedigree” mechanism to confirm the delivery of drugs from the pharmaceutical factory to the wholesaler and then to the pharmacy. The “chain of custody” is a method to establish written tracking of drug delivery routes, the main purpose is to prevent counterfeit drugs, and the e-Pedigree system based on barcodes or RFID tags will be a more effective management mechanism.
However, in the actual verification process, RFID will be technically limited. If a pharmaceutical company insists that the read rate of tracking RFID labels must reach 100%, it must increase the input of readers and antennas, resulting in RFID hardware implementation. The substantial increase in cost will become prohibitive. This solution is difficult to adopt. Therefore, the focus is on the process management system and database integration in the background. In the case of RFID, the tag itself, in addition to the unique ID, Other information is rarely carried. Therefore, after reading the ID, it must be linked to the system to obtain the contents of different databases to obtain the information from the start of manufacturing to the present. This is very similar to the production history of agricultural products.
Therefore, the focus of the RFID solution is whether there is a way to make up for the part with a reading rate of less than 100%. Through the effective management of the system, the management cycle will not be interrupted, but this is not an easy task, because the face is a huge amount of There is a systematic integration problem.
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Figure 2. The requirements of the drug “chain of custody” urge the medical industry to pay attention
Difficult to meet all needs with a single manufacturer
Although the selection and combination of technology is a difficult problem, it is even more difficult that there is no mature solution. Therefore, an integrated solution is needed to implement RFID applications. Because all businesses must use their knowledge and experience in industrial applications and use management software to integrate various hardware into solutions that can be copied in large numbers and create excess profits.
However, stable systems and various reliable hardware devices are researched and developed by various professional manufacturers. This cannot be done by a single manufacturer. Therefore, the management software is usually designed as various modules, plus different Only when software and hardware suppliers cooperate and integrate with each other can they come up with integrated solutions.
Design of Bundled RFID Medical Service
Taking our company as an example, our integrated RFID medical electrical solution focuses on the application of a specific range (close loop). In specific applications, we provide automated data collection applications and become part of the existing system modules to strengthen The part of the original system that is prone to errors and manual errors.
Make good use of RFID technology in different frequency bands
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Figure 3. Making good use of RFID technology in different frequency bands can simplify medical operations and reduce negligence
As shown in the figure above, in such an application scenario, the frequency of RFID we use is Low Frequency (125+148 KHz) and mid-to-high frequency (8.2~13.5 MHz), which are mostly used in electronic bracelets, access control, and electronic lockers. , Inventory management, medicinal materials/pharmaceutical supply chain management, payment systems, etc.
Such an integrated RFID medical electrical solution can accelerate the management process of the medical industry and improve the overall medical quality. The related application benefits are briefly described as follows:
1. Access Control
Installing access control systems in controlled areas, such as wards, pharmacies, examination rooms, operating rooms, intensive care units, etc., can prevent family members from affecting the work of medical staff due to excessive urgency, or harassment of unknown persons entering the controlled area. At the same time, the entry and exit of medical staff can be recorded, which is useful for tracking the contact history of nosocomial infections.
2. Point of Care
When a patient enters the emergency room or is hospitalized, the medical staff wears a wristband equipped with an RFID chip for the patient. The patient’s identification number is written in the chip. Take medical care in the hospital as an example. In the past, nurses had to record medical information. Enter the computer only after returning to the nursing station. At present, after many medical institutions have introduced mobile medical trolleys, nurses can use the dedicated computers installed on the medical trolleys to input patient status directly into the back-end system of the hospital during patrols, or through wireless The network retrieves data from the back-end system. However, due to the limited space in most emergency rooms or wards, nurses cannot push the mobile medical trolley into the ward very quickly, but still need to enter and exit the ward and perform nursing records outside the ward. Nursing records are very cumbersome and they must interact with patients at any time. Therefore, mobile devices such as handheld computers or PDAs can simplify and more efficient work processes for nursing staff, and can also reduce the chance of misdiagnosis or giving the wrong medicine.
When reading the RFID wristband, the mobile device can immediately download the patient’s electronic medical record through the wireless network, and can immediately perform the nursing execution record at the bedside, reducing the time to access the medical record data, update the medical record data, and complete the medical history Sex and so on greatly improve the work efficiency of medical staff.
3. Asset Management/Instrument Inspection Asset Track and Trace
The administrative management unit of the hospital needs to conduct regular inventory of all equipment and instruments in the hospital, especially the important equipment is usually of high value, so through the induction tracking of RFID, if you leave the storage location, it will send out a text message or a warning notice. Personnel to handle.
In the part of the instrument inspection, when the instrument and equipment manufacturer is doing routine inspections in hospitals, they can also use hand-portable mobile devices with RFID readers to accurately inspect and repair equipment in different regions.
Partners who make good use of different expertise
In a nutshell, the company’s existing RFID product line includes “fixed terminals” and “handheld industrial computers”. Fixed terminals are mostly used for access control, while handheld industrial computers can be used for access control, Mobile medical, mobile nursing, or asset management, etc.
And as in the previous analysis, before the implementation of the RFID system, the application of bar codes should not be ignored. Bar codes can be regarded as an auxiliary system of RFID, just like before the use of EPC RFID in retail products, the popularization of EAN.UCC bar codes is the key. The medical and electrical industry is also the same; although the characteristics of RFID wireless sensing are unmatched by barcodes in some applications, barcodes are an indispensable mechanism to maintain the effective operation of the system. Therefore, we design the barcode reading and RFID is parallel, so we have joined the barcode printer of Dinghan Technology.
In addition, just as the US FDA requires all prescription drugs and retail over-the-counter drugs (OTC) to have NDC barcodes in drug control to identify the ingredients and dosages of the drugs used, and to avoid medication errors. Therefore, from drug factories and distribution channels to pharmacies, hospitals and In the clinic’s supply chain, to the final user, there must be a software system connected with NDC to ensure the correctness of the content and dosage of the medication. Therefore, we seek to obtain Advantech’s mobile medical computer and the intelligent information system. Integration of services and other cooperation.
In addition, RFID tag manufacturers and fixed readers are also indispensable parts, so we also have reliable partners.
Concluding remarks
Manufacturers must realize that for customers, our most important value is to string together the entire combination of software and hardware to provide an implementable and achievable solution. For customers, the introduction and integrated application of RFID Fang is meaningful.
(Text/Xinji Information. Special Assistant to General Manager Wu Jinrong)
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