The Use of RFID in Healthcare: Benefits and Barriers

Wen Yao, Chao-Hsien Chu and Zang Li

Abstract—Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology healthcare from multiple perspectives. We examined the
not only offers tracking capability to locate equipment and potential benefits of RFID as a driver that will promote its
people in real time, but also provides efficient and accurate adoption and identified the barriers to their acceptance in
access to medical data for doctors and other health professionals. healthcare. The organization of this paper is as follows.
However, the reality of RFID adoption is far behind earlier
expectation. This study reviews the literature on RFID
Section 2 discusses research methodology and motivation.
applications in healthcare based on a formal research We review critical problems faced by healthcare and common
framework. We aim to identify current opportunities, potential applications of RFID in healthcare in section 3. The adoption
benefits and adoption barriers. Our study shows that most care benefits and barriers are presented in section 4. Finally,
providers indicated that RFID to be functional and useful in section 5 provides implications and guidelines for RFID
asset tracking and patient identification. Major barriers to implementation and concludes the paper.
adoption include prohibitive costs, technological limitations,
and privacy concerns. Although RFID offers healthcare
practitioners advantages to enhance clinical practice, better II. METHODOLOGY AND FRAMEWORK
designed RFID systems are needed to increase acceptance and A. Review Methodology
proper use of RFID in healthcare.
We use a systematic method, which is divided into three
I. INTRODUCTION phases: literature collection, categorization and analysis (see
Fig. 1.), to guide our literature review,
R adio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a fast
developing technology that uses radio waves for data
collection and transfer; it can capture data efficiently and
automatically without human intervention. RFID is believed
to be the next generation innovation for automatic data
collection and asset tracking. Although the technology is Fig. 1. Review Methodology
attractive in its obvious advantages over other identification
technologies such as bar coding, its adoption and diffusion 1) Literature Identification and Collection: The literature
lags behind the optimistic expectation of the early years. For a search was conducted with the help of library search engines
variety of reasons, adoption of RFID by healthcare has been available at the Penn State library. We used professional
sluggish because the payback is less immediately visible than databases, including Medline, ABI/INFORM, ACM Digital
what most companies prefer. Although costs are decreasing, library, Elsevier, IEEE Explore, and Springer. In addition,
many companies are still reluctant to invest in a technology general search engines such as Google Scholar were used to
not yet widely adopted [1]. RFID shows great promise in supplement this process. Since the use of RFID in healthcare
helping healthcare improve patient safety and achieve industry is quite recently, we did not limit our search to any
operational efficiency, but it also presents implementation publish date. The search was performed in early June and
challenges such as interference with medical devices, privacy repeated at the end of December in 2009 to ensure that our
concerns, prohibitive costs, and lack of global standards. literature review is most up-to-date and comprehensive.
Given the current implementation pace, this paper For our searches, we employed the following keywords and
systematically and comprehensively reviewed the literature their combinations: RFID, healthcare, hospital, health and
on the use of RFID in healthcare. We provide an introduction medicine in the searching areas of title, keywords or abstract.
to the RFID technology, its use in healthcare, advantages, and Journal and conference papers addressing all healthcare
barriers on the basis of published research work. This paper providers and their uses of RFID were identified. Technical
aims to identify the potential applications of RFID in reports were excluded since we focus on research papers.
More than 148 indexed articles were identified and 90 of
Manuscript received January 31, 2010. This work was supported in part them were reviewed based on their relevancy. Bibliography
by the U.S. National Security Agency under Grant H98230-09-1-0397. management tools such as Firefox plug-in “Zotero” and
W. Yao is with the RFID Lab, College of Information Sciences and
Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, EndNote were used to help manage the references and
USA (e-mail: wxy119@psu.edu). citations.
C. H. Chu is the founding director of the RFID Lab, College of 2) Literature Categorization and Research Framework: In
Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, PA 16802, USA (corresponding author, phone:
the second stage, collected literature was classified into
814-865-4446; fax: 814-865-6426; e-mail: chc4@psu.edu). several categories based on the proposed research framework,
Z. Li is with the RFID Lab, College of Information Sciences and which will be introduced in the next section. With the guide
Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, of this framework, we identify why RFID is attractive to
USA (e-mail: zul110@psu.edu).
healthcare, how it is applied in different areas, and what III. RFID APPLICATIONS IN HEALTHCARE
technologies are used in practice. Meanwhile, research papers
A. The RFID Technology
that discuss the potential benefits as incentive factors in RFID
adoption and barriers that impede RFID implementation are The main components of an RFID system include the
also categorized in this framework. hardware (tags, readers and antennas) and the software
3) Literature Analysis, Evaluation and Implications: The systems. RFID tags can be passive or active, depending on
last phase followed our proposed research framework and powering techniques. Passive tags can only communicate
conducted detail analysis with regard to the literature. We with the reader when they are sitting in an electromagnetic
proposed some useful suggestions and implications (e.g., the field of the reader since they do not have battery power; while
most popular application, the perceived benefits and critical active RFID tags can power the integrated circuits and
barriers) for researchers in this area. broadcast the response signal to the reader.
B. Research Framework An RFID reader scans the tag and sends the tag information
to the back-end database system that filters, analyzes, and
Figure 2 depicts the logical process of RFID adoption in
stores the data and then passes on useful information to other
healthcare. To better understand how RFID can help improve
enterprise application systems for further processing. The
healthcare practices, we first identify the existing problems
database system can have multiple readers located in different
and challenges faced by this industry. Then we study how
places sending data through wired or wireless networks. In
RFID is applied in different application areas to solve or
addition, enterprise application systems, such as hospital
partially solve these challenges. By analyzing the research
information systems (HIS) and supply chain management
prototypes, pilot studies, and case studies in our collected
systems, can connect to the middleware to retrieve tags
literature, we identify the benefits and barriers of RFID
information via security protocols. In healthcare, RFID
adoption in healthcare. These implications can be used to
systems are usually combined with other technologies such as
guide future research in this field.
Bluetooth, mobile devices, and sensors for different purposes.
Passive RFID tags are primary used for patient identification
and drug authentication while active RFID tags are mainly
used for the tracking purpose.
B. The Needs of RFID in Healthcare
Hospitals are currently facing challenges of improving
patient safety and reducing operational costs, which are often
compromised by human and systemic errors. The Institute of
Fig. 2. Research framework
Medicine (IOM) estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000
C. Related Work deaths per year were related to medical errors, showing the
Although RFID technology is starting to make inroads into desperate need to improve the patient safety in U.S. hospitals
healthcare, literature that systematically examines its [7]. Meanwhile, achieving high operational efficiency in
potential in healthcare is still lacking as compared to those in healthcare is another essential goal for organizational
the retail and the supply chain industry. On the one hand, performance evaluation [8]. Five problems are identified as
compared to other technologies such as PDA, RFID is not the common phenomena that lead to healthcare operation
widely adopted in healthcare. On the other hand, healthcare is failures including: medical mistakes [9], increased costs [3],
a complicated application domain and presents its unique theft loss [9] [10], drug counterfeiting [11], and inefficient
features. A few studies have contributed to literature review workflow [12].
in this area. For example, [2] reviewed different ways how 1) Medical mistakes: Medical errors have become a
RFID systems are being used in hospitals. They focused on leading cause of death, killing more people each year than
the applications and failed to discuss the benefits and barriers. AIDS or airplane crashes. The IOM estimated that “tens of
Thus, their study is not very helpful for making adoption thousands of deaths and injuries are caused by medical
decision. In contrast, [3] analyzed the potential benefits, mistakes each year” while the Food and Drug Administration
implementation challenges and strategies. However, their (FDA) estimated that number to be nearly 500,000 [9].
review is more industrial oriented and does not follow a However, the FDA also estimated that half of the drug errors
formal research framework. Other studies [4]-[6] also gave an are preventable by adopting the appropriate information
overview of the current research in applications of RFID in technologies. Medical malpractice can come from patient
hospitals but they are not comprehensive. Existing pilot misidentification which is recognized as a serious risk to
studies and research works were not included. patient safety [13], adverse drug events, infant missing or
Clearly, there is an urgent need to conduct a systematic mismatch, and accidents like sewn-up of surgical tools inside
review of literature toward RFID applications, benefits and the patient body after the operation.
barriers in healthcare. Our review aims not only to provide a 2) Increased cost: Hospitals are actively seeking solutions
state-of-art assessment for other researchers but also to offer a to reduce the rising healthcare expenses as well as not
useful guidance for implementing RFID-enabled systems for adversely affecting patient satisfaction. According to [3], a
healthcare administrators. good health information system could save economy $140
billion a year. That is about 10% of our total health-care 120 bed acute-care hospital [7]; Brigham and Women’s
spending, and that’s a conservative estimate. Hospital in Boston, USA used RFID tags to track commonly
3) Theft loss: It is estimated that the theft of equipment and lost medical items [17]; RFID-based robots were deployed by
supplies costs hospitals $4,000 per bed each year, which FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, North Carolina, USA
represents a potential loss of $3.9 billion annually with over to track valuable assets [18]; [19] evaluated an infrared/RFID
975,000 staffed beds in the U.S. [10]. Thus, tracking medical equipment tracking system in a tertiary care hospital and
devices, especially expensive assets, is of upmost importance. observed increased use of infusion pumps as a result of
Besides, some recyclable medical instruments are unnoticed efficient tracking capability offered by the RFID technology.
and discarded by the cleaners without medical knowledge. RFID is moving beyond the perception of being solely an
4) Drug counterfeiting: Tempered or altered products asset tracker and increasingly viewed as a technology that can
entering the healthcare supply chain is a growing concern [1]. improve care by tracking vulnerable patients, e.g., elderly
The FDA estimated that up to 40 percent of the medicines dementia patients [20], children [21], and newborn [22].
shipped from countries such as Colombia and Mexico may be Further, RFID is used to accurately determine the location of
counterfeit, which caused a huge problem for people’s health victims and staff at the emergency site [15] [23]. Hospital
and the society [11]. The pharmaceutical industry reported staff tracking is also presented as a prototype [24]. Compared
that it loses $2 billion per year due to counterfeiting drugs. to asset tracking, people tracking is more challenging since it
Both consumers and manufacturers are looking for ways to involves patients, doctors, medical know-how and other
keep drugs safe [1]. Item level RFID tagging is believed to be organizational, privacy and social issues [25].
the best solution against counterfeit drugs. Tracking drugs from creation to receipt is applied in the
5) Inefficient workflow: Inefficient workflows exist in pharmaceutical industry, to alleviate drug counterfeiting,
every hospital because of the difficulty in allocating resources theft, and misuse of medications [3]. Medicine bottles are
in real time. For example, doctors and nurses wasted over 30 being fitted with RFID tags to detect fake drugs moving
percent of their working time searching for or reading through the supply chain [26]. Purdue Pharma announced to
information about patients [14]. Most medical facilities place RFID tags on bottles of pain reliever OxyContin to
practiced managing the large number of seriously injured protect drug safety [27]. Besides, RFID is used to track other
patients expected during catastrophic events. During mass medical supplies that are sensitive to environment, e.g., blood
casualty events, as the demands on healthcare teams increase bag [28].
and the challenges faced by managers escalate, workflow 2) Identification and Verification: Misidentification is one
bottlenecks begin to develop and system capacity decreases of the major sources of medical errors and it can be reduced
as well [15]. by RFID. Positive patient identifications (PPI) applications
include using a smart patient wristband that when scanned by
C. RFID Applications in Healthcare
a RFID reader reveals patient information such as name, date
RFID has been applied in a variety of healthcare practices. of birth, admitting orders, insurance information, and the
We investigated a total of 55 research papers to identify the surgical site [13]. A patient identification system has been
cutting-edge hospital applications, which is organized in five implemented and evaluated in the University College
categories in terms of system functionalities: tracking (16 Hospital in Galway, Ireland, to improve patient safety [13]. It
papers), identification and verification (11 papers), sensing (6 can also support nursing shift exchange to save time and
papers), interventions (12 papers), and alerts and triggers (14 efforts [29]. PPI applications also include newborn identity
papers). Several papers described more than one application reconfirmation [22] and disaster victim identification (DVI)
so they are analyzed in more than one category. Table I [23]. The placement of the RFID chip inside victim bodies
summarizes the diverse venues of the collected papers, was proved practical by the Austrian DVI team in Thailand in
including journals and conferences in information technology, early 2005 [23]. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found
medicine, surgery, and forensics. that a combination of bar codes, passive RFID and active
TABLE I
RFID worked well for patient identification in their pilots
DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURES FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES study [30]. Besides, implantation of an RFID tag into human
Journal/conference Number % molars is used in security and access control [31].
IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society 7 12.73 ID-based system using RFID technology can also be used
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 4 7.27 for automatic identification of medical articles in hospitals
AMIA Symposium 4 7.27
[32] [33]. Mount Sinai Hospital of New York conducted
Journal of Medical Systems 3 5.45
Forensic Science International 2 3.64 pilots on tagging contrast agent syringes with details on the
Journal of Healthcare Information Management 2 3.64 volume, name, as well as the expiration date of the product
Surgical Endoscopy 2 3.64 [34]; a new specimen-labeling system that uses RFID was
Others 31 56.36 proved to be useful in reducing specimen labeling errors in
the pathology laboratory [35]; RFID tag-labeled endotracheal
1) Tracking: Tracking assets and equipment is the most tubes have been used for accurate bedside monitoring of
widely used application in hospitals. Passive RFID tags are endotracheal tube position [36] to reduce health risk to
used to track telemetry transmitter in Hartford Hospital, patients. In addition, these specimens can be uniquely and
Connecticut, USA [16]; active RFID tags along with barcode accurately linked to a patient’s records so as to prevent human
are used to track infusion pumps, beds, and wheelchairs in a errors.
 3) Sensing: An RFID tag can be applied to collecting applications are examined in surgery and believed to make
sensor-derived data and doing computation by extending the patient care safer [58].
chip’s interface capability to a sensor. Sensing applications of During blood transfusion, it is important for a patient to
RFID include integration with physical and chemical sensors receive the safest blood possible, which is done by tracking
for logistic data logging [37], and integration with gas sensors the donated blood to guarantee the quality of the blood source
for food logistics [38]. Others include temperature sensing [59]. Reference [60] estimated the error rate for blood usage
[39], humidity sensing [40], and chemical sensing [41]. In to be one out of 14,000 in the U.S. and suggested adding an
hospitals, temperature sensing makes it very convenient to RFID layer to the blood safety loop. A prototype adopted a
track tainted blood to aid in protecting a hospital’s blood fingerprint sensor with RFID, so as to ensure the process of
supply; chemical sensing can support advanced medical identifying blood donor more reliable and credible [59].
monitoring. In the future, RFID tags will likely be used as Drug administration can be improved by alerting care
environmental sensors on an unprecedented scale [42]. providers any critical situation. A dosage system presented by
4) Interventions: RFID-enabled interventions can provide [61] used PDA to scan the barcodes on the drug package and
automated care, improve current procedure, guide pathway, the RFID wristband carried by a patient, to alert drug
enable automatic data capturing and collaboration, etc. mismatch, over-dosage or drug errors; other prototypes for
First, automated care is helpful for patients at home, e.g., a monitoring drug compliance include smart cabinet and smart
self pill-dispenser to help patients take their dose safely [43], refrigerator [62], home robot based on facial recognition [63],
and an assisted living system to support daily activities for and an electronic health record synchronized system [64].
visually sighted or brain injured people [44]. Second, RFID Such applications usually combine RFID with other
interventions can help alter current procedures and automate technologies such as sensor networks [65], barcode [66], and
manual process in hospitals, e.g., automatically determining text-to-speech technology [14]. Taichung Hospital in Taiwan
patient discharge time [45]. Furthermore, one-stop healthcare deployed a drug administration system and showed effective
services enabled by RFID are possible to serve smoothly from reduction of medication errors [67]. Other uses can include
registration to examination, treatment, prescription, and next tube and syringe monitoring, hand hygiene monitoring, etc.
reservation to improve workflow efficiency [46].
Third, finding pathways for patients in the indoor IV. BENEFITS AND BARRIERS
environment can be accomplished by RFID, such as an indoor
A. Benefits of RFID in Healthcare
navigational system for blind or visually impaired people [47]
[48]. Reference [49] installed a map information system on a RFID adoption in healthcare can not only reduce cost and
white cane to inform the patient using colored guideline and improve efficiency by tracking asset and people, but also
vibration. An RFID-based navigation systems was deployed reduce medical errors to improve patient safety and save lives.
in 18 elderly people’s homes in Southern Spain and it has Table II summarizes the potential benefits that can promote
more than one year of validation [50]. RFID adoption.
Fourth, currently data collection in hospitals is done 1) Improved patient safety or reduced medical error: The
manually. This process is time consuming and error prone. primary goal of applying RFID technology in healthcare is to
Fortunately, this problem can be solved by RFID. The Capital improve patient safety. First, RFID is a valuable tool for
Regional Medical Center in Tallahassee, USA has analyzed quickly retrieving patient information and monitoring patient
such data to identify the current hospital functioning status location in hospitals so as to improve the accuracy of patient
under the scenarios of low or moderate patient load [51]; identification [13] and any medication a patient is taking [61]
researchers from the simulation community collected data [63]. Second, alerting services can identify possible human
through RFID on a consulting engagement at a hospital [52]. errors and warn care providers in case of danger. For example,
Collaborating with HIS, RFID can help build intelligent automatic sponge counting by RFID can avoid sponge left
clinical diagnosis and treatment support system [53], which is inside the patient body [55]. Third, finding the required
applied in Alfred hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Lastly, with equipment with minimal delay can save patient life [12].
the data logged by RFID, hospitals can provide an audit trail Fourth, integrating RFID with existing HIS can improve
of the equipment and staff involved, in the event of an decision making by accessing patient information in real time
incident with patients [54]. accurately. Further, RFID-based tracking system can improve
5) Alerts and triggers: Applications involving alerts and personal safety and security by better access control.
triggers are designed to protect patient from dangerous events 2) Time and cost saving: Another critical challenge faced
or emergencies during the surgery, blood transfusion, drug by healthcare is increased costs which can be reduced by
administration, hand hygiene monitoring, etc. several approaches. For example, RFID-based asset tracking
In the surgical environment, 1,500 objects are estimated and monitoring system can help prevent valuable assets and
left inside patient bodies after surgery each year in the U.S., equipment from being stolen [16] [25]. Other benefits include
and two-thirds of them are sponges [55]. To solve this improving staff productivity, decreasing equipment rental,
problem, a handheld wand scanning device was proposed to and improving regulatory compliance [2] [68]. Doctors and
detect sponges inside the patient body [55]; a similar nurses in their daily activities can save a lot of time searching
experiment was conducted with a detection accuracy of 100% for medical devices and can focus on their professional duties
[56]; use of gauze sponges with embedded passive RFID tags [69]. These improvements can in turn reduce medical costs,
was tested with an animal and proved useful [57]. RFID as much as $1 million annually for a small-scale hospital [12].
 3) Improved medical process: Hospitals want to improve patients are tagged. In addition, RFID integration with
the patient workflow and the operational process so as to save back-end systems and data synchronization networks is
costs and enhance patient satisfaction. With automatic data needed to make RFID viable. The total cost can be huge.
capturing and storage capability of RFID, manual processes 3) Privacy concerns: The benefits of using RFID in
which are typically employed to record data can be automated. medical settings are achievable only if patients are confident
RFID has the potential to significantly improve operations by that the data being transmitted will not be misused [80]. When
actively monitoring asset and patient flow through the an RFID tag is associated with a patient, it can contain the
hospital [70]. Besides, the recorded data can be analyzed to unique identification number that associates with any type of
improve hospital efficiency [51]. personal information, such as patient name, gender, home
4) Others benefits: RFID technology brings other benefits address, and medical history. This information is highly
such as protecting drug supply [27] [71], improving resource mobile and sensitive. Thus, healthcare organizations should
utilization [72], and enhancing patient satisfaction [3]. ensure neither personal nor confidential information is
transmitted via RFID. Such data should be stored in a secure
TABLE II
BENEFITS OF RFID APPLICATIONS IN HEALTHCARE
server in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability
Benefits Findings
and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Besides, to relieve the
Increased Reduce misidentification of patients [13], medical articles anxiety of hospital staff and patient, it is important to tell
safety or [32] [33], patient chart and images [54]. them the purpose of this data collection [52]. However, a
reduced Improve patient drug compliance by monitoring dosage 2007 national public opinion survey of 1404 Americans
medical taking process [61] [63].
errors Affection control during disease fashion [73].
revealed that interest in RFID personal medical technology
Provide real-time data access for health professionals via was positively associated with high levels of trust in others
Real-time and social supports [81]. Only a small minority were
hand-held wireless PDA, e.g., contact history of patients
data access
[74], online laboratory data and radiology report [75]. negatively disposed toward such applications [81]. As the
Identify empty beds >20 minutes earlier 67% of time [45]. technology is regulated by more legislative bodies, public
Time saving Identify a time reduction of more than 50% in the daily
activities of hospital staff [69].
concerns will be alleviated.
A 500 bed hospital could save $1 million annually [12]. 4) Other barriers: Other barriers to RFID adoption include
Cost saving
Reduce theft loss [16] [25] and unnecessary waste [72]. the lack of organizational support [82], trust issues [83],
Bon Secours Richmond Health System finds RFID saves $2 security concerns [84], etc.
million annually by real-time location system [76].
Improved Streamline patient admission to ICU [75]. TABLE III
medical Process can be improved so patients can have less waiting BARRIERS TO RFID ADOPTION IN HEALTHCARE
process time and enhanced care experience [54] [73]. Barriers Findings
Other Improve drug supply [27] [71], improve resource utilization Electronic medical devices may fail in the presence
benefits [19] [72], improve patient satisfaction [3]. of high-power RFID reader [85].
Interference In 123 Electromagnetic interference (EMI) test,
B. Barriers to RFID Adoption RFID include 34 EMI incidents: 22 were classified as
Deploying RFID technology in the healthcare industry for hazardous, 2 as significant, and 10 as light [77].
Tag placement is one of the main factors involved in
promoting patient safety is a complex issue since it involves correct identification of people and medical
technological, economical, social, and managerial factors. equipment [78].
Table III summarizes the major barriers and findings from Ineffectiveness
RFID tag readability is strongly dependent on the
collected literature. factors such as dosage form, angle of rotation, read
distance [79].
1) Technical issues: Technological limitations of RFID can Readability can be affected by insufficient read
impede its adoption especially for healthcare. First, RFID range, and existence of multiple tagged objects [70].
may interfere with the hospital environment [6] [72], e.g., The lack of standardization of the protocols for RFID
medical devices [77]. Second, RFID systems are not always Standardization at the hardware and software levels causes lack of
reliable. RFID read accuracy depends on a variety of factors interoperability across providers [82].
RFID infrastructure can run from $200k to $600k for
such as tagged object, tag placement, angle of rotation, and a tracking system in a medium-sized hospital [86].
read distance [78] [79]. Last, lack of commonly accepted Integration costs can range from $3 to $16 million
industrial standards prohibits RFID deployment in large scale, Cost
[32] .
including standards of RFID data structure, air-interface, and An RFID system can run from $20k to over $1
million [87].
local interface. Health Industry Business Communication A typical 800-bed hospital spends additional $1,050
Council (HIBCC) has been working on establishing common per day in medication tagging alone [68].
standards for healthcare systems. Privacy concerns can include inappropriate
2) Cost: RFID costs include initial hardware and software collection, intentional misuse, or unauthorized
disclosure of healthcare information resulting from
costs, training, as well as the continuously high costs of RFID Privacy and legal
use of RFID technology [80].
infrastructure maintenance and upgrade. The infrastructure issues
RFID systems introduce a key ethical concern
requires not only tags and readers, but also additional servers, regarding privacy because of its surveillance
databases, middleware and applications. Each passive RFID potential [82].
Lack of organizational support [82], trust issue [83],
tag costs approximately 10 cents and active one costs several unclear return on investment [88], security concern
dollars, compared to 3 cents per barcode sticker [68]. The Other barriers
[84],current RFID systems not designed for needs of
difference in total cost can be substantial if all equipment and hospitals [82].
 V. DISCUSSIONS and improved service quality. Patient satisfaction and staff
RFID applications have attracted attentions and interests productivity should also be evaluated.
from diverse research communities in medical informatics, Second, RFID performance in hospitals should be tested to
computer science, industrial engineering, electric engineering, rule out technological deficiencies. Several studies have
etc. Useful and novel applications have been designed and shown hazardous interference between RFID signals and
evaluated in laboratories and hospitals. medical equipment. Besides, RFID is not always reliable and
The most widely accepted and adopted application is asset 100% accurate. Countermeasures to these problems, such as
and equipment tracking since it is badly needed by hospitals using middleware to improve data quality or using multiple
and does not involve privacy and social issues. Asset tracking readers to increase data accuracy, should be carried out to
applications can reduce theft, improve resource utilization improve the system performance.
and save costs. A number of pilot tests and small-scale Third, patients and medical staff should be educated about
projects in hospitals have proved that. In contrast, people the RFID technology so they have a better understanding on
related applications such as patient tracking are more the benefits and possible privacy issues. Once they realize
complicated since there are major concerns about privacy that RFID can help improve their safety and reduce medical
issues. One popular research topic is the patient drug errors, they will be more convinced to wear RFID tags and
compliance since it can largely reduce medical errors worry less about their privacy.
associated with the medicine taking process. Although drug Fourth, technology vendors should act positively to
administration systems can help improve patient safety, most customize RFID systems for hospital needs and make it
of them are still in prototype stage and not yet accepted in interoperable with existing HIS since hospitals can vary a lot
hospitals. Once social and privacy issues are solved by depending on the location, age size, etc [82]. For example, to
improved technology and consolidated legislations, hospitals reduce costs, bar codes and existing wireless network can be
will soon adopt patient related applications to reduce medical combined with RFID technology; to add new features in the
errors and improve patient safety. future, RFID systems should be designed with the capability
RFID suggests a digital infrastructure that changes the way of modifying and removing services.
of care delivery and it has the possibility to revolutionize the To sum up, the RFID technology offers healthcare
healthcare industry. With automatic data collection, RFID practitioners advantages to improve patient safety, save time,
enables ubiquitous collecting of hospital data, provides and reduce costs but also causes critical issues for successful
strategic services to patient-centered recording, and uses implementation. To increase the acceptance and wide use of
these medical data for cooperative care. The real value of RFID in healthcare, more customized RFID systems, more
RFID can be realized when it is integrated with existing HIS. institutional support, seamless integration with existing HIS,
It can provide valuable process-integrated decision support satisfactory security/privacy measures, and mature
through current medical knowledge. In addition, it can regulations to protect privacy are needed.
comprehensively use patient data for research and healthcare
reporting. Several studies envision the future of an REFERENCES
RFID-enabled smart hospital that uses RFID and wireless [1] J. Reiner and M. Sullivan, "RFID in healthcare: a panacea for the
technology to provide a variety of applications [89] [90]. This regulations and issues affecting the industry?," in Healthcare
Purchasing News, 2005.
will benefit vulnerable people such as the elderly. [2] Anonymous, "Radio-frequency identification: its potential in
The top benefit is recognized as improved patient safety healthcare," Health Devices, vol. 34, pp. 149-60, 2005.
and reduced medical errors. Besides, care professionals in [3] A. M. Wicks, J. K. Visich, and S. Li, "Radio frequency identification
their daily activities can save a lot of time searching for applications in hospital environments," Hospital Topics, vol. 84, pp.
3-8, 2006.
medical devices. Also, they have real-time access to patient [4] H. A. Nahas and J. S. Deogun, "Radio frequency identification
related data, so they can focus on their professional duties. applications in smart hospitals," in Proceedings of the 20th IEEE
Other benefits include cost saving, improved medical process, International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, 2007,
and enhanced patient satisfaction. As the healthcare industry pp. 337-342.
[5] A. Lahtela, "A short overview of the RFID technology in healthcare,"
is investing more money and efforts, RFID is expected to be in 4th International Conference on Systems and Networks
able to help achieve the two goals of reducing costs and Communications, 2009, pp. 165-169.
improving patient safety. [6] B. S. Ashar and A. Ferriter, "Radiofrequency Identification Technology
However, healthcare presents unique challenges for RFID in Health Care: Benefits and Potential Risks," The Journal of American
Medical Association (JAMA), vol. 298, pp. 2305-2307, 2007.
adoption. Major barriers to RFID adoption are identified as [7] I. K. Mun, A. B. Kantrowitz, P. W. Carmel, K. P. Mason, and D. W.
prohibitive costs, technological limitations, and privacy Engels, "Active RFID system augmented with 2D barcode for asset
concerns. We provide the following suggestions to healthcare management in a hospital setting," in IEEE International Conference
stakeholders toward successful implementation of RFID on RFID, 2007, pp. 205-211.
[8] B. Chowdhury and R. Khosla, "RFID-based Hospital Real-time Patient
systems. Management System," in 6th IEEE International Conference on
First, the stakeholder should perform a sound and clear Computer and Information Science (ICIS), 2007.
return on investment (ROI) analysis of an RFID project [9] M. McGee, "Health-care I.T. has a new face," in Information Week. vol.
before implementing it. The main issue is to compare the total 988:16, 2004.
[10] Anonymous, "RFID: Coming to a hospital near you," April 2004.
costs of implementing a RFID system and the total saving by [11] S. Greengard, "RFID: cure for counterfeit drugs?" RFID Journal,
using this system. The cost saving can come from many October, 2003.
sources such as optimized workflow, reduced medical error, [The complete reference is available upon request]

View publication stats