New RFID Standard RuBee Has Health Care Applications
RuBee is the project name for a new RFID technology. Developed by Visible Assets, and now a candidate for anointing by IEEE as the P1902.1 standard, RuBee is or is not going to replace “traditional” RFID like the EPC Global standard. Here are some of the technical details:
peer-to-peer, radiating, transceiver protocol operating
at wavelengths below 450 Khz. This protocol works
in harsh environments with networks of many thousands
of tags and has an area range of 10 to 50 feet.
One of the advantages of long-wavelength technology
is that the radio tags can be low in cost, near credit
card thin (1.5 mm), and fully programmable using 4
bit processors. Despite their high functionality,
RuBee radio tags have a proven battery life of ten
years or more using low-cost, coin-size lithium batteries.
The RuBee protocol works with both active radio tags
and passive tags that have no battery.
IEEE P1902.1, “IEEE Standard for Long Wavelength
Wireless Network Protocol”, will provide for
asset visibility networking that fills the gap between
the non-networked, non-programmable, backscattered,
RFID tags widely used for asset tracking and the high-bandwidth
radiating protocols for IEEE 802.11™ local area
networks and IEEE 802.15™ personnel area and
data networks.
IEEE P1902.1 will offer a “real-time, tag searchable”
protocol using IPv4 addresses and subnet addresses
linked to asset taxonomies that run at speeds of 300
to 9,600 Baud. RuBee Visibility Networks are managed
by a low-cost Ethernet enabled router. Individual
tags and tag data may be viewed as a stand-alone,
web server from anywhere in the world. Each RuBee
tag, if properly enabled, can be discovered and monitored
over the World Wide Web using popular search engines
(e.g., Google™) or via the Visible Asset's “.tag”
Tag Name Server.
The term “harsh environment” refers to the ability of RuBee to get accurate reads through or near liquids and metals – something traditional passive RFID can't do. A “visibility network” provides not only tracking capabilities, but the ability to update and maintain information about the asset as it moves through manufacturing, its subsequent life cycle, and eventual retirement. This information can also include physical parameters such as temperature or physical shocks. All this comes with an active tag with a 10 to 15 year battery life. Sounds like a good technology for tracking medical devices, eh?
The RuBee standard will support interoperation of RuBee tags, RuBee chips, RuBee network routers and other equipment. The backers of RuBee reportedly include Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, Sony, Panasonic, Motorola and NCR.
One of the problems with current passive RFID tags is the read rate – the percentage of tags that are actually read when they pass by passive RFID readers. Current read rates average about 70 to 80 percent. In applications where special attention is given to reading all tags, read rates go up to the low 90s. RuBee offers much closer to a 100 percent read rate. What you give up with RuBee is speed – RFID UHF tags can be read at 150 to 200 tags per second. RuBee can do 10 reads per second.
Some are suggesting that RuBee may replace many passive RFID technology installations.
On one level, RuBee addresses the two most striking challenges with
today's RFID deployments: the lack of practical roadmaps to both
cost-effective item-level tagging and creative and pragmatic uses of
active tags to capture environmental data.
But a potentially more interesting rationale lies in the middle
of the politics of standards groups and of corporate bureaucracies.
The typical large corporation today has a culture that often undermines its efforts to do the right thing technologically.
…
CIOs need an excuse to be able to explore alternatives without
admitting failure. Hello, RuBee, you beautiful gem of an excuse to
explore alternatives to RFID without losing face—or job.
For more background, check out this eWeek story. Pictured right is a RuBee tag manufactured by Visible Assets.
A Rationale for a Medical Device Unique Identifier – Finally
RFID industry veteran, Brad Sokol, will be introducing “A Roadmap to Medical Tool Pedigree” tomorrow at the RFID Applications conference in Washington DC. Targeting things like surgical instruments, disposables and other items used in the delivery of care, Sokol aims to track (dare we say “automate”) the workflow around sterilization, use and disposal to minimize hospital acquired infections. (You can read the press release here.)
Mr. Sokol has explored and integrated three theoretical solutions (Tracking medical objects, Sterilization process, and Error-Infection reporting process) to design a closed (micro-hospital) and open loop (macro- improved medical error/ infection reporting system) pedigree model for medical devices. He has gathered data to help demonstrate that medical devices, instrumentation and supplies, directly and indirectly cause 13,000 to 26,000 mortalities annually. These mortalities alone are responsible for adding an additional cost of 3.2 – 6.4 billion dollars to the US healthcare system a year. These solutions could be readied for development within a year and product profitability may be technologically achieved within the next 3 years.
Now that is a reason for unique identifiers. Sokol targets the “medical devices” that don't carry serial numbers. The challenge remains to determine the best methods to identify and track these items – I'm sure Sokol has that all figured out; we'll just have to wait until tomorrow.
Pictured right are sample SAW RFID tags that could be used to identify and track surgical instruments, and other small, hard to label items.
FitSense Releases Universal BodyLAN
Health and wellness vendor FitSense, has announced the release of their Universal BodyLAN (the UBM), a personal area network supporting wireless sensor communications with gateways and medical devices. You can find some technical BodyLAN info here.
of magnitude less power than Bluetooth and Zigbee. The UBM can be
easily integrated into devices such as blood glucose meters, weight
scales and activity monitors where they become a node in the
ActiHealth(TM) end to end data network. These ActiHealth Activated
devices automatically move their biometric data securely and in
compliance with HIPAA, while lasting for one to two years on as little
as a single coin cell battery.
The BodyLAN wireless radio
protocol is proven technology with hundreds of thousands of systems
deployed, including its use under license by brand names in the
consumer sports, fitness and entertainment markets. The BodyLAN was
architected with the user experience in mind,” said Tom Quinlan, CTO of
FitSense(TM). “You just can't ask users to push buttons, fumble with
cables or replace batteries all the time. This breaks down the
healthcare continuum.” “ActiHealth is like an E-Z Pass system,”
continues Quinlan. “When a UBM enabled device comes in proximity of an
ActiHealth Gateway (PC, cell phone, dial-up modem) in the home, at the
office or on the go the data moves automatically, traveling securely
via the Internet to our database for retrieval by the web-based
applications used in health & wellness programs.”
There are a number of interesting personal area networks/radios on the market, all with different performance profiles and varying scope of their solution. FitSense's UBM (an unfortunate choice of acronyms) is one of the most mature and complete solutions. Now if they would just put some cool technology photos on their web site – pictured right is the best I could get.
FDA Seeks Unique Identifier for Medical Devices (Again)
MX Magazine quotes me on this issue that won't go away. Here's my top 5 list on “what is it about unique identifiers and medical devices?”
- Post market surveillance of medical devices will improve patient safety (and is a good thing)
- Unique identifiers for medical devices won't improve patient safety
- Medical devices already have unique identifiers, they're called serial numbers
- To improve post market surveillance, health care providers must be legally compelled to report adverse and sentinel events to the FDA
- Only after providers are compelled to report and the processes are in place to receive, process and report on events, will the question of unique identifiers for medical devices be a reasonable question
When providers and vendors currently do post-event investigations, they have little or no problem identifying the involved devices (unless it's something like tubing), and when necessary, tracing back to the devices Device History File – which is already required by FDA regulations. So perhaps someone can explain to me why politicians, GPOs, and non-profit associations are so hot for unique identifiers for medical devices?
You can read more about this by using the search box in the left hand column. Just type in “unique identifier”, click “this site” and hit the Google Search button.
Motorola to Acquire Symbol
Motorola announced today that it will acquire Symbol Technologies for $3.9 billion (press release). Recent accounting irregularities, and the resulting SEC fines have sent Symbol reeling for the past couple years. There have been recent rumors that Symbol was up for sale.
Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates in Northboro, Mass., said
he was concerned with Motorola's purchase of Symbol since “Motorola
does not have the best track record when it comes to acquiring
companies and integrating them into the organization.” He questioned
whether the purchase would amount to a good long-term move by Motorola,
but said CEO Ed Zander “has brought some new drive and discipline to
Motorola lately, so maybe this acquisition would be different.”
When rumors of such a deal first circulated, Gold thought
Motorola might need to pay up to $8 billion for Symbol, which is strong
in the customized, ruggedized device market. The key thing Motorola
gets in the deal, he added, is Symbol's “major position” in the RFID
space and its large portfolio of industrial-quality wireless LAN access
points, switches and management technology. Symbol also has a
“commanding lead” in sales of such gear to the retail market, and a
growing presence in health care, Gold said.
How this will impacts Symbol's health care business, especially OEMs who buy their embedded radios, will be interesting to see. Motorola has had some interest in health care in the past, for example some technology and startup investments, licensing the Besson patent to GMP (see the bottom of this post), and Motorola is a member of the Continua Health Alliance.
