RFID chips used to prevent mix-ups of donor blood

12 July 2006 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

The supply of donated blood to patients at the Saarbrücken Clinic in Germany is now becoming even safer because Siemens is equipping bags of life-saving donor blood with RFID (radio frequency identification) chips that provide hospital staff with precise information about each bag at all times.

Used until now primarily for transporting goods, RFID is a non-contact method for reading data of all types from chips. All of the information on the product such as contents, origin or destination is programmed into the small, sticker-sized plates attached to the goods. When the chip is scanned, all data relevant to the product in question appears on the scanner. The clinic in Saarbrücken has been using this technology since 2005. Patients at the clinic are given small armbands with radio chips that enable doctors to identify them with the help of tablet PCs, which prevents any mix-ups when prescribing medication.

Siemens has been successfully using a similar RFID solution at the Jacobi Medical Center in New York since 2004. The 700-bed clinic in Saarbrücken is now expanding the system to include conserved blood, minimising the risk of accidentally giving a patient the wrong blood type. The patients' RFID armbands contain information on each individual's treatment. A few seconds after scanning the chip with a mobile reading device, nurses gain access to the relevant patient file that is stored in a protected database. These files contain the details of a patient's medical history, for example, as well as information on any medication or conserved blood that has been prescribed. The chip on the bag of conserved blood has information on the blood contained in the bag, including the blood group, origin, planned use and recipient of the contents.

For more information contact Siemens Southern Africa, +27 (0)11 652 2000.

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