Originally Published EMDM March/April 2002
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
COMPONENTSReal-Time Location System Tracks Devices
A company's wireless transponder tags allow medical devices to be located and tracked in real time. The wireless technology, developed by WhereNet (Mechelen, Belgium), is expected to benefit mobile devices such as infusion pumps, wheelchairs, and external pacemakers.
Tom Turner, vice president of WhereNet, says, "Using our technology, hospital staff can attach a low-cost, extremely low-power radio transmitter to your devices that will locate, track, and manage them." Turner notes that devices can be located with an accuracy of 3 m, and that the 2-mW signal transmissions from the tags pose no risk of electromagnetic interference in a hospital environment. Furthemore, says Turner, the tags' signals can also be modified to contain real-time telemetry information, indicating, for instance, whether the tracked device is on or off.
According to the company, advantages of such real-time traceability include optimization of resources, improved working conditions, and reduced patient waiting time.
A practical demonstration of WhereNet's technology was provided by G.E. Medical Systems (Buc, France) at its booth at the Medica show in Düsseldorf, Germany. G.E. is integrating WhereNet's electronic tags into a service it calls Intellimotion, which allows users to display the location of a medical device within a facility such as a hospital, and to follow the device's movements around the site at all times. The signals transmitted by the electronic tags are picked up by a system of passive antennae located in hallways. This information is conveyed by the local network to surveillance stations, and centralized on a computer server, where the data can be manipulated to provide location displays, device utilization levels, inventory reports, and equipment interrogation and searches.
Ranjit Pradhan, global product manager for Intellimotion at G.E., explains the appeal of such real-time tracking technology. "More and more, hospitals are trying to run like businesses," he says. "You cannot manage assets well if you cannot find them. And even if you cannot find them, you cannot cut corners in patient care. So what do you do? You rent auxiliary equipment at great expense," he adds. G.E., which introduced the Intellimotion service at the end of 2001, reports that the market response has been "superb." Intellimotion is already in use at a number of hospitals in the United States.
Looking beyond the current clip-on tags that it supplies, WhereNet has plans to integrate the transponders with medical devices at the board or chip level. The company welcomes inquiries from medical OEMs about such projects. "We are very interested in working with manufacturers who believe that the ability to have locatable devices could add value to their products," says Turner.
Copyright ©2002 European Medical Device Manufacturer
