Singapore firm Cadi Scientific is involved in a S$100,000 (US$62,000) RFID pilot in the orthopaedic ward of Singapore General Hospital, with a view to further roll-out to other wards.
Not only does this free up the time of nurses, but it also prevents patients being disturbed whilst they are resting. Collected data is then made available to hospital staff, whose portable devices - incuding tablet PCs and PDAs - are updated with patient information.
According to Dr Yang Kuang Ying, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at SGH, the remote sensoring also enables the hospital to quickly determine who a patient has been in contact with, the value of which was highlighted by the SARS outbreak in 2003, when contact tracing proved complicated and time-consuming.
If the pilot is extended other patient tests will also be integrated into the system, such as monitoring a patient's heart rates and blood pressure.
Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 27.02.2006
