The Application of RFID in Emergency Medicine

Recently natural disasters and man-made calamities happened very frequently in Taiwan, some of which caused hundreds of inhabitants died and injured. The most important thing that makes the emergency medical treatment system work effectively during these catastrophes is dependent on the accuracy and immediacy of the information among ambulances, hospitals, fire bureaus, public health bureaus or offices, and emergency executive centers. With this information, the medical system can arrange the resources efficiently. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a kind of wireless technology that it uses radio frequency (RF) to identify target objects. The characteristics of RFID are its identification and orientation. Through tracing electronic signals, RFID is able to identify, orientate and trace patients or medical materials directly and continuously. Thus, RFID can help managers of medical institutions to promote emergency medical treatment quality, reduce medical mistakes effectively, and increase efficiency and effectiveness in hospitals. A series of emergency medical delivery applications that use 915MHz RFID rings is developed in this paper. Through the help of RFID, the paper integrates the information of the whole emergency medical supply chain, and establishes a new model of emergency medical activities to solve the problems of information blocking among different medical rescue units. By solving these problems, the new model can enhance the rescue quality, reduce the damage of the disaster and strengthen the patient-oriented emergency care system.