RFID Gazette

IQPC Hosts RFID, Tracking & Barcoding for Hospitals Conference

The 2nd Annual RFID, TRACKING & BARCODING FOR HOSPITALS:
Innovative Solutions for Reducing Medical Errors, Increasing Patient Safety and Improving Processes

January 24-26, 2005 * Green Valley Ranch Resort * Las Vegas, NV

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At this must-attend event you will learn how to implement tracking, barcoding, and RFID technology to achieve greater efficiency, increase patient safety, and maximize your ROI.

You'll also get the most timely and relevant updates on how you will be affected by the new FDA mandates on barcodes, and the safety goal of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) to further expedite the process of RFID implementation in healthcare.

BENEFIT FROM CASE STUDY PRESENTATIONS PROVIDING PRACTICAL AND FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE INTO:
- Quickly and accurately filling requests and repackaging individually barcoded products
- Data and voice communications capabilities of UWB for today's HIPAA environment
- Today's Auto-ID investment foundations for the future
- Utilizing barcoding to improve patient safety
- Real-time asset restocking and replenishment
- Enhancing the quality of care with these technologies
- Benefits of RFID tagging medical equipment
- Improving processes by analyzing and capturing relevant data

REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCES AND EXAMPLES FROM:
Vanderbilt Children's Hospital + North Bronx Healthcare Network + Massachusetts General Hospital + Sisters of Mercy Health System + Fleet Hospital Support Office + Bon Secours Richmond Health System + Beloit Memorial Hospital + HIMSS + EPCGlobal US + Mercy Management + Parco Merged Media + Radianse + RFID Solutions + EPC Group + Symbol Technologies + Pan-Pacific RFID Solutions + Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM)

For more information and to register please visit http://www.iqpc.com/na-2149-02/1010 - Please mention code IT04.

Business Objects, Velosel Analyze RFID Data

Business Objects has formed a partnership with Velosel to offer a new product to help firms analyze large amounts of RFID data. Velosel5, collaborative product information management (CPIM) software, is integral to the partnership's ability to analyze RFID data.

According to Information Week:

Business Objects and Velosel touted their tool as an answer to the analytical challenges presented by RFID, which is expected to swamp retailers and their suppliers with new supply chain data. RFID tags track individual items, product cases or palettes being shipped from place to place. A number of large retailers, including Wal-Mart, are pushing adoption of RFID.

Read more: Business Objects Wants To Analyze RFID Data

HP to Incorporate RFID in Sensor Networks

HP will open a smart tag test center in Omaha to incorporate RFID smart tags in sensor networks, hoping to change the nature of the supply chain from asset management to an adaptive and secure supply chain.

According to internetnews.com:

HP research scientist Malena Mesarina showed off a sensor overlay network that connects RFID readers to inexpensive video cameras via an 802.11b network, code-named SmartLocus. SmartLocus controls and monitors a sensor network of cameras and readers. The cameras provide information, for example, on where items in a warehouse have been moved.

Read more: HP: Sensor Networks Next Step For RFID

Sun Microsystems, SeeBeyond Develop RFID Middleware Project

In an attempt to give rival IBM some competition, Sun Microsystems has formed a partnership with SeeBeyond to work on RFID middleware solutions.

According to eWeek:

The upcoming retail solution is one of several RFID (radio frequency identification) reference architectures that Sun is eyeing for vertical and horizontal markets, Roger Nolan, senior director of Web services integration at Sun Microsystems Inc., said in an interview with eWEEK.com

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"Sun will also be teaming up with many other partners on [the RFID reference architectures]," Nolan said.

Known so far only as Sun's "joint RFID solution," the co-created retail reference architecture will be implemented among retail stores by Sun and SeeBeyond, as well as by SeeBeyond's third-party SI (systems integration) allies. SeeBeyond Technology Corp. and some of its outside SIs are highly experienced in retail deployments, Nolan said.

Read more: Sun: RFID Deal with SeeBeyond Puts It 'Way Ahead'

Nokia RFID Cell Phones

At the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment Trade Show, Nokia demonstrated a prototype of their new RFID-enabled Nokia 5140 phone. An RFID reader is contained within the phone's shell.

According to ZDNet:

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is wowing warehouse operators and some retailers because of how easily product information stored on the chip can be transferred. Nokia said Sunday that delivering product information to a mobile device using RFID can extend the technology "beyond the supply chain, and into customer service, merchandizing, marketing and brand management."

For instance, retailers could put RFID-embedded "touch phone here" signs on store shelves to send a coupon to the phone, or put the same signs at checkout stands to instantly transfer personal information stored on the phone in order to complete a warranty, Nokia Director Gerhard Romen said.

Read more: RFID cell phones take shape at Nokia

RFID Passports

The U.S. State Department will soon add RFID chips to all U.S. passports, enabling remote reading of identifying information at borders around the world.

From the Wired News:

But civil libertarians and some technologists say the chips are actually a boon to identity thieves, stalkers and commercial data collectors, since anyone with the proper reader can download a person's biographical information and photo from several feet away.

"Even if they wanted to store this info in a chip, why have a chip that can be read remotely?" asked Barry Steinhardt, who directs the American Civil Liberty Union's Technology and Liberty program. "Why not require the passport be brought in contact with a reader so that the passport holder would know it had been captured? Americans in the know will be wrapping their passports in aluminum foil."

Read more: American Passports to Get Chipped

AXCESS RFID Sensor Tags Detect Ammonia

AXCESS International Inc. has announced the availability of its new RFID sensor tag that can warn of toxic levels of ammonia leakages.

According to the press release from PR Newswire:

The use of portable ammonia sensors and a wireless monitoring network provides an easily installed and cost effective blanket detection coverage area where expensive hard-wired systems fall short. The battery powered RFID architecture allows for sensors being easily populated in greater quantities at less cost, thereby increasing protective coverage. The TCP/IP transmission capability of the AXCESS ActiveTag(TM) receivers allows for transmission of sensor alerts to personnel in containment centers via email and pagers during an incident.

Read more: AXCESS Adds Ammonia Detection Capability to RFID-based Sensor Tags

Former Malaysian PM to address RFID conference

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, is to address political and industry leaders meeting to discuss Asian developments in the field of radio-frequency tagging. Commonly referred to as RFID or Smart Labels, this simple but far reaching technology is the focus of Smart Labels Asia 2004, a conference on 10-11 November in Tokyo, Japan.

Drawing on his success as Premier, Dr Mahathir will explain how RFID is vital for Asian development. A cornerstone of the Malaysian government’s hi-tech vision, RFID tags on Malaysian passports and national ID cards have increased security and ease-of-use.

RFID Journal, NCSC to Host Homeland Security RFID Seminar

The National Cargo Security Council is teaming up with the RFID Journal to offer a seminar that will address how RFID can be a solution for supply chain and homeland security threats. The seminar will be held December 5-7 at the Long Beach, California Hilton.

According to the press release from Business Wire:

The comprehensive program features 22 world-renowned experts from international manufacturers and shippers, leading consultancies and universities, government and law enforcement agencies, as well as RFID software and hardware providers.

Speakers are confirmed from a wide range of organizations such as Target Corp., International Paper, Hasbro, Starbucks, Hutchison Port Holdings, Stanford University, Deloitte, AIDC100, RFID Journal and Savi Technology, including many others.

Attendees will visit the Port of Long Beach for a half-day tour and to see how RFID-enabled solutions are being deployed in an innovative, real-time system to track trucks entering and exiting terminal facilities. Early on, consenting attendees will be "RFID tagged" and, at a post-seminar report, learn where they have been during the two days of the program.

Read more: NCSC and RFID Journal Co-Host World's First Major RFID Seminar on How RFID Addresses Supply Chain and Homeland Security Threats

SkyeTech Releases UHF RFID Reader SkyeRead M3

The new SkyeRead M3 is a small universal read/write module developed by SkyeTech to expand their existing line of Tagnostic RFID reader modules.

From the press release at ThomasNet:

With Tagnostic® multi-protocol support, the SkyeRead M3 removes existing barriers to interoperability by reading and writing all ISO and EPC UHF tags on the market, and by operating universally in North America, Europe, or Asia. The RF power is adjustable, and the M3 is frequency-agile across the UHF RFID spectrum from 860–960MHz. The same popular SkyeTek Protocol gives host application developers a powerful software programming interface and API that simplifies integration and minimizes design time.

“We’ve now done for UHF what we did for HF”, said Rob Balgley, Executive Chairman of SkyeTek, Inc.

Read more: SkyeTek Announces Entry into the UHF RFID Reader Market

VeriChip RFID Tags Upset Privacy Groups

Following the FDA's approval of Applied Digital's subdermal VeriChip RFID tag that is implanted in humans, privacy advocates that expressed their concern for the ability of humans to be tracked ubiquitously.

According to ZDNet:

But Australian privacy advocates, who were already wary about similar chips being used by retailers to help manage their supply chain, are furious that humans could be chipped and wonder how long it will be before the first Australians are implanted.

Roger Clarke, a privacy advocate who has been speaking out against RFID-type technology for more than a decade, said he was "appalled and stunned" at the naivete of both the people developing the technology and the way it is being reported in the general press.

"When I spoke about this in 1994 people said I was going to extremes and talking nonsense."

Read more: Subcutaneous RFID tags upset privacy advocates

FDA Approves Subdermal RFID VeriChip

Applied Digital, the company that manufactures the subdermal RFID chip VeriChip, says that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved injecting humans with the tracking device for medical purposes. In Mexico, the practice is already well underway, with more than 1,000 patients chipped while Mexican Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha and 160 of his employees were tagged with the subdermal RFID chip more than two months ago. While privacy is clearly a concern, it should be noted that the chip approved by the FDA will not contain detailed medical data, but rather simply the patient's identity, blood type, and details of their current condition.

According to silicon.com:

The company is targeting the devices at patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other conditions requiring complex treatment. [...]

So far, no hospitals in the United States have placed orders for the chips, an Applied Digital representative said. So the company is planning to give away scanners, which cost $650 a piece, to 200 trauma centres around the country to jump-start the market.

Read more: RFID chips in humans get green light

Michelin Tests RFID Tags on Tires

Automobile tire manufacturer Michelin is expanding its RFID tests by expanding the pilot to several other companies. The RFID tag will be embeded in the tire's sidewall and will be used to identify the exact product.

According to Information Week:

The tag is based on a new standard the automotive industry is adopting that puts it more in line with what retailers, consumer-goods suppliers, and the Department of Defense are using. That standard--the Automotive Industry Action Group's Tire and Wheel Label and Radio Frequency Identification Standard B-11--has been recently revised to support the 96-bit numeric EPCglobal data format preferred by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the Defense Department, and others. Today, tire manufacturers must produce up to 12 labels with unique identifying marks for each tire to help tire stores and dealers recognize the tires best-suited for specific vehicles.

Read more: Michelin Expands RFID Tests

Pentagon Implements RFID Tags on Drugs

The U.S. Department of Defense has announced an initiative to tag all medical supplies and drugs in the supply chain with RFID tags. IBM will carry out the project.

According to BJHC:

The RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags will provide the US military with ‘global transit visibility’. Given a more active international role by the US military, RFID should simplify moving, storing and distributing essential supplies such as drugs and medical consumables from bases in the United States to wherever US forces are in action around the world.

Read more: Pentagon institutes RFID for medical supplies

Alien and Zebra RFID Tag Shortage

Two of the top RFID tag manufacturers, Alien Technology and Zebra Technologies, are both experiencing RFID tag shortages and backorders at a crucial moment in RFID implementation for Wal-Mart and Target suppliers. The shortages could drive the price of the tags upward.

According to Information Week:

The lengthy production cycle is probably the biggest culprit in the current shortage. It takes about 12 weeks to make the raw silicon, which is then sent to another company that sticks a tiny RFID antenna to it, adding four weeks to the process.

Larger manufacturers such as EM Microelectronic, Philips Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments say they're waiting until EPCglobal Inc., the organization overseeing RFID standards called for in the mandates, finalizes the next-generation RFID chip specification.

Read more: Vendors Warn Of RFID Tag Shortage In Coming Months

IT Vendors Discuss RFID with FCC

While RFID shows a lot of promise in the world of supply chain management, IT vendors told the FCC yesterday that there are other technologies that may be better suited for the job, especially if large objects are involved. RFID, after all, has a relatively short wireless range.

According to eWeek:

Gary Bann, senior applications engineer at SamSys Inc., predicted that the eventual use of RFID will not be just for product tracking, but also for document management, emergency evacuation control and access control to physical facilities. But use of RFID in document management will require super-powerful readers, capable of peering through as much as 110 inches of paper, according to Bann. [...]

Alternatives to RFID include bar codes, GPS and cellular, according to Ravi Rajapakse, chief technology officer for Savi Technologies Inc.

Read more: RFID Carries Promise and Pitfalls, IT Vendors Tell FCC

RFID Only One Link in Supply Chain Security

Using RFID for supply chain tracking is not the only component of security, according to an eWeek article:

During an interview with eWEEK.com later, Unisys president McGrath maintained that RFID is simply one of a number of technologies—including bar-coding—that can be used for tagging items in the supply chain.

He predicted that GPS and cellular will rise in importance, since these wireless technologies can carry information over much wider ranges. Other elements of supply-chain technology include the underlying network, applications and RFID middleware, for instance.

Read more: Is RFID the Key to Supply-Chain Security?

RFID Robot Technology

It is possible that one day we will all have robots in our homes that employ RFID tracking technology to make certain that every item is stocked and in proper order.

Kevin Maney at the USA Today discusses this and other future applications of RFID:

For instance, the technology could have a profound impact on garbage. Never again would you have to sort recyclables from other garbage. Just throw it all together. At a garbage facility, trucks could dump their loads on a conveyor belt that goes past an RFID reader, which could identify the tags on the products going by — a glass Pepsi bottle, a plastic milk jug — and redirect them into appropriate recycling bins.

Read more: RFID: Robot for infinite decluttering?

Tesco Rolls Out OATSystems RFID Technology

Unlike Wal-Mart, Tesco will not mandate that their suppliers use RFID, but they will encourage them to do so. Tesco begins implementing radio frequency identification technology to manage items in their supply chains this month and plan to finish by Christmas.

According to ComputerWeekly:

Tesco cut short a series of RFID trials last year citing a lack of global standards for the technology and protests by civil rights groups.

It is now standardising on OAT Foundation Suite for its enterprise-wide RFID initiatives. The suite will power Tesco's RFID infrastructure across its network of more than 2,000 sites.

Read more: Tesco relaunches its RFID scheme

UCLA RFID Middleware to be Demonstrated

UCLA's Wirleless Internet for the Mobile Enterprise Consortium, will demonstrate an RFID middleware application at the radio frequency identification conference to be held on campus on October 12.

According to InformationWeek:

Chi-Cheng (Peter) Chu, senior researcher at the consortium, says the middleware runs on a distributed system based on Web services and built on a Microsoft .Net framework, allowing the middleware management application to be distributed to more than one device.

The middleware is designed to run on servers hosting supply-chain or warehouse-management applications to assess and process the RFID data. The application also is being adapted for medical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the Department of Defense.

Read more: UCLA Develops RFID Middleware

Item-Level RFID Tagging Poses Privacy Threat

Retailers such as Wal-Mart have claimed that item-level RFID tagging is still a decade away and may never happen, if costs are prohibitive. But, the privacy advocate's worst nightmare may come true sooner rather than later.

According to CNet News.com:

Pharmaceutical companies are gearing up to slap tags on individual packages of certain prescription drugs within the next three years, under a mandate from the Food and Drug Administration, according to executives in that industry speaking at this week’s conference.

Retailers don’t have such a mandate but are tip-toeing that direction anyway. A Wal-Mart store in Dallas is already selling Hewlett-Packard printers and scanners with RFID tags on their boxes, said Elizabeth Board, executive director of the public policy steering committee for EPCglobal, organizer of the EPCglobal U.S. Conference 2004 trade show.

Read more: Privacy questions arise as RFID hits stores