1st International Workshop on Ubiquitous Mobile Healthcare Applications

Research Article

RFID-Based Information System for Preventing Medical Errors

Download574 downloads
  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/ICST.MOBIQUITOUS2009.6895,
        author={Jong-Hoon Youn and Hesham Ali and Hamid Sharif and Biplav Chhetri},
        title={RFID-Based Information System for Preventing Medical Errors},
        proceedings={1st International Workshop on Ubiquitous Mobile Healthcare Applications},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={MOBILE HEALTHCARE},
        year={2009},
        month={11},
        keywords={Biomedical equipment Blood Computer errors Hospitals Information systems Medical diagnostic imaging Medical services RF signals RFID tags Radiofrequency identification},
        doi={10.4108/ICST.MOBIQUITOUS2009.6895}
    }
    
  • Jong-Hoon Youn
    Hesham Ali
    Hamid Sharif
    Biplav Chhetri
    Year: 2009
    RFID-Based Information System for Preventing Medical Errors
    MOBILE HEALTHCARE
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.4108/ICST.MOBIQUITOUS2009.6895
Jong-Hoon Youn1,*, Hesham Ali1, Hamid Sharif2, Biplav Chhetri1
  • 1: Dept. of Computer Science., Univ. of Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska 68182
  • 2: Dept. of Computer Electronics & Engineering, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588
*Contact email: jyoun@mail.unomaha.edu

Abstract

A report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences estimates that as many as 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year because of medical errors. In this project, we propose an innovative IT-based approach to prevent errors in various medical processes by utilizing advances in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and wireless communications. The goal of the study is to perform an in-depth study of existing RFID technologies for patient care in medical facilities. In the paper, a new system architecture that integrates various wireless technologies such as RFID and Wi-Fi was proposed. In the pilot study, we primarily focused on the limitations and shortcomings of passive RFID technologies in medical settings. Our experimental results show the reliability challenge in the current passive EPC Gen 2 RFID systems for use in a dynamic medical environment.