HINZ 09 - m-Health - Dave Parry

Dave Parry was next up in the m-Health workshop and his talk was on the use of RFID tags in medicine. RFID tags were first introduced in World War II! RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. They are very low power and do not need a line of sight in the same way as a bar code.
The RFID niche is in the low-cost, low intelligence space. One of the main features of RFID tags is “Autoidentification” – RFID tags are self-describing objects that can link digital to physical worlds.
Examples of RFID tags in healthcare are patient and equipment tracking, Cold Chain for Pharmaceuticals (DHL), anti-smoking, anti-counterfeiting and home support. RFID tags can be linked to mobile devices and can act as a low cost information storage device and by embedding URLs the tags can link the physical world to the web. Near Field Communications (NFC) is an application of RFID tags used for charging mobile phones with credits or paying for good. This technology could also be applied in healthcare settings. The “Intelligent Bag” uses RFID tags to know what is inside it and was should be inside it. “Where are my glasses” is a project that uses RFID tags to help people with memory problems locate objects in their home. Other applications include monitoring people to see where they are and whether they are well. They could be used in interventions to change behaviour. The challenges of RFID tags are the user interface design, the size of the reader, tag placements and how to infer activity from location and movements.