Heath and RFID

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is not new. During World War II, the Royal Air Force used it to identify airplanes. The first commercial applications appeared 20 years ago. Today we use it in our daily lives (even if we are not always aware of it) and it could be absolutely everywhere within the next few years.

What is RFID?

RFID is an automatic identification technology that can be used to provide electronic identity to an item/object. A typical RFID system consists in transponders (tags), reader(s), antennas and a host (computer to process the data). RFID readers send out radio waves to detect tags and read their data. There are many different RFID solutions which differ on parameters such as frequencies, prices, ranges, sizes, or energy consumption. This technology is said to be disruptive as it is well-suited to linking the physical and virtual world: business applications are overwhelming.

Why should we focus on RFID solutions in healthcare?

1) Healthcare: A major market for RFID applications

The number of chips sold is increasing: today, hospitals are currently one of the largest buyers of RFID technology; and today, it is estimated that more than 200 hospitals in the USA are now using radio wave-based technology. According to IDTechEx, the market for RFID tags and systems in the whole health care sector will be much bigger as it will rise rapidly from $90 million in 2006 to $2.1 billion in 2016.

2) Healthcare: A concentration of the issues related to RFID with the most accurate level.

Technical, standardization, ethical and managerial issues are very sensitive in this industry. With regards to technical issues, the environment in hospitals is often a ?hostile? one for RFID solutions: elements such as metal, heat, cold, liquid, and complex information systems make successful implementation harder. Moreover, healthcare is extremely regulated and many rules constrain the implementation of such solutions. Ethical questions are often raised with RFID but these questions become obviously crucial issues in the healthcare industry. Finally, management is also extremely sensitive as mistakes can have serious impacts for patient safety: medical errors are too costly human wise and economically.

3) Wide variety of RFID applications

Many RFID specialists claim that this technology should enable healthcare to overcome existing technological and workflow limitations. This new tool should help to improve the tracking of patients, medical personnel, drugs, and equipment, decrease medical errors, provide positive identification of patients and medications, secure the access of sensitive places in hospitals, provide safer medications to patients, and last but not the least, it can facilitate better information management.

A research to address this diffusion process

Two years ago, we launched a research to analyze factors that impact the diffusion of this technology and the effects of RFID solutions on organizations, value chains and performance within the healthcare industry. The scope of the research is wide and gathers several domain of competencies to address issues related to:

Regulation and governance:

• Standardization process (ISO, EPC?)
• Orientation of the main regulators (EPC Global, FDA, EU, etc.)
• Evolution of the value chains
• Ethics, privacy and security issues

Management and organization:

• Adoption, assimilation and appropriation of RFID solutions
• Impacts on the type of competencies required and activities achieved by medical professionals
• Risk assessment for RFID projects

Performance:

• Impacts of RFID solutions on medical errors, mitigation and healthcare quality improvement
• Impacts on costs and productivity (ROI)
• Rationalization of processes

Current projects:

• DTC Project

Past publications:

• Report on the Internet of Things
• Communication at the Academy of Management

Pierre-Jean Benghozi, PREG – Ecole Polytechnique
Sylvain Bureau, PREG – Ecole Polytechnique, Assistant Professor ESCP-EAP

EventsÉvénements

• Health and RFID

  On December 11, 2008

Publications

• How Can the Internet of Things Help to Overcome Current Healthcare Challenges
  5 octobre 2012 .
  Jérôme Couturier, Davide Sola, Giovanni Scarso Borioli, ESCP Europe, Cristina RAICIU 3H Partners

  Article published in Strategies & Communications Review, in the context of the conférnce organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair in Sept. 2012 on Internet of Things.
• How can the Internet of Things help in overcoming current challenges … and make healthcare sustainable
  5 octobre 2012 .
  Davide Sola, ESCP Europe, Jerome Couturier, ESCP Europe, Giovanni Scarso Borioli, ESCP Europe, Cristina Raiciu, 3H Partners

  Presentation at the conference of the  Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Sept. 2012, in on «Internet of Things».
• RFID in healthcare applications: Simulation as a decision support tool
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Sylvain Housseman & alii, PhD candidate, Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne, France

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• Map of Risks for the Implementation of RFID solution: Application of Ancillaries in the University Hospital Jean Verdier – APHP
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Eric Bertrand, Dpt. of Strategy and Quality, University Hospital of Ambroise Pare, Paris, Joël Schlatter, Department of Pharmacy,University Hospital of Jean Verdier, Paris

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• RFID-Enabled warehouse optimization: lessons from early adopters in the 3PL industry
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Samuel Fosso Wamba, University of Wollongong, Australia, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• Evaluation of the interest of RFID in the medication use system: Application to chemotherapy process.
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Rémy Collomb et alii, Department of Pharmacy,University Hospital of Nice, France

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• Evaluating the Readiness for Integrating RFID with Enterprise Systems in the Healthcare Supply Chain
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Tim McLaren, Anan Kittana, Norman Shaw, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• RFID & Item-Level Information Visibility
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Zhou Wei, Department of Information System & Operations, Management University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• Project « DTC »: a threefold experimentation of RFID-based tracking for improving organizational health related processes in hospital
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Yannick Meiller, PhD, Novapten

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• Lab#ID: a project of technology transfer
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Aurelio Ravarini, PhD, CETIC Research Center, Università Carlo Cattaneo, Castellanza, Italy

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• RFID and Health Care
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Federico Pigni, PhD,LabID-RFId Lab, Università Carlo Cattaneo, Castellanza, Italy

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• RFID Solutions: An Opportunity for the Health Care Industry?
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Sylvain Bureau, PREG – Ecole Polytechnique, Assistant Professor ESCP-EAPS.

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• RFID and health care: What are the main challenges?
  25 décembre 2008 .
  P.J. Benghozi, Ecole Polytechnique, PREG and Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Sylvain Bureau, PREG – Ecole Polytechnique, Assistant Professor ESCP-EAPS.

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• RFID-enabled analysis of service delivery and process visibility in ambulatory care: preliminary analysis
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Rema Padman et alii  PhD, Carnegie Mellon University

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »
• RFID in the critical care environment: it IT safe?
  25 décembre 2008 .
  Erik van Lieshout, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

  Presentation at the workshop organized by the Innovation & Regulation in Digital Services Chair, Paris, December 13 , 2008, on « ICTs and Health »