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.

Further reading:

Smart farming with LoRaWAN
Otto Wireless Solutions Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Real-time visibility is transforming modern agriculture, and Otto Wireless Solutions, together with Dragino, deliver this capability through a comprehensive suite of long-range IoT sensors and gateways designed for smart farming.

Read more...

---

RTK-enhanced GNSS and INS solution
Dizzy Enterprises Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
This latest XSENS MTi-8 Click provides high-accuracy positioning (RTK-supported) and orientation tracking in demanding outdoor embedded applications.

Read more...

---

High-performance double balanced RF mixer
RFiber Solutions Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
The AM5008 from Mercury Systems is a high-performance, double-balanced MMIC mixer designed for wideband applications spanning 2 GHz to 24 GHz.

Read more...

---

Compact NFC antennas enable easy integration
Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Leankon has expanded its 13,56 MHz NFC antenna portfolio with a comprehensive suite of nine off the shelf products designed for next generation IoT applications.

Read more...

---

Ultra-low jitter clocks
Altron Arrow Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Skyworks has introduced a new family of ultra-low jitter programmable clocks designed to meet the increasing demands of next-gen connectivity.

Read more...

---

Efficient Bluetooth SoC
Altron Arrow Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
The EFR32BG29 wireless SoC from Silicon Labs is a highly efficient, high memory, low-power, and ultra compact SoC designed for secure and high-performance wireless networking for IoT devices.

Read more...

---

Minimal size, maximum flexibility
Würth Elektronik eiSos Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Würth Elektronik has introduced two highly compact radio modules that give developers maximum freedom in designing proprietary wireless solutions that go beyond standard protocols.

Read more...

---

Super Wi-Fi extends industrial connectivity
NEC XON Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Africa’s harshest mines, ports, and industrial parks are no longer bound by range, latency, and interference challenges.

Read more...

---

HackRF Pro advances Open SDR performance
IOT Electronics Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Designed for engineers, researchers, and radio enthusiasts alike, the HackRF Pro can transmit and receive signals across a wide frequency range of 100 kHz to 6 GHz, making it a versatile tool for testing and developing modern and emerging radio technologies.

Read more...

---

Deterministic high-speed Ethernet
Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS has developed a new 10G TSN endpoint IP Core, enabling deterministic real-time communication at data rates of up to 10 Gbit/s.

Read more...

---