RFID Applications in E-Healthcare

Introduction

Radio Frequency Identification, also known as RFID is grouped under the broad category of automatic identification technologies. RFID is a system that transmits identity information of a living or non-living thing, wirelessly via radio waves. A typical RFID system comprises a tag and reader. An RFID tag contains a microchip attached to a radio antenna mounted on a substrate and it can store up to 2 kilobytes of data. An RFID reader also contains an antenna with which it can retrieve data stored on the tags and then sends the data in digital form to a computer system. RFID has been in use for over a decade, but until recently, its application was limited. Today, RFID is being used for not hundreds but thousands of applications such as (Thornton, 2006, pp.33-35):

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  Supply chain including wholesale and retail inventory management

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  Item-level tagging of consumer goods on retail shelves

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  Contactless payment systems at the retail point of sale

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  Asset tracking like luggage, medicines, equipment, etc.

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  Pharmaceutical anti-drug counterfeiting

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  People, livestock and wildlife tagging

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  Automobile keyless start systems

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  Passport and border control

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  Toll payment system

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  Access control

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  Smart cards

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  Logistics

The healthcare industry is a substantial market for RFID applications since healthcare facilities today face limited resources and rising expenses. Emerging information technologies like the RFID technology can offer means to measure and control the resources and workflow processes in order to improve patient care. As every other technology, RFID too has its pros and cons. People, that is, organizations, developers, consumers or researchers are concerned about the privacy and security threats that it puts forth. Users feel vulnerable because of the concerns (privacy/security/technical) that exist with RFID. Measures have been found to overcome these issues, but they are not yet strong enough to eliminate these threats completely. However despite these shortcomings, RFID seems to have a welcoming future especially in healthcare wherein several new RFID applications are being developed repeatedly. Throughout the chapter, the progress of RFID over the years has been analyzed; the advantages and disadvantages are discussed; impact of the technology on the healthcare industry and the threats and concerns posed by it along with their measures; the future of RFID in healthcare is also talked about towards the end of the chapter.

Background