Healthcare adopts RFID

AT&T has released a portfolio of radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking systems for US healthcare providers, says Arabian Business.

The company offers the devices, infrastructure and systems needed for full-scale tracking applications, from tags and software to networks and data storage. The solution generates customised reports and provides a WiFi-enabled location-based service to track equipment, devices and patients.

Hospital staff can, from a Web browser, track the current or historical location of mobile assets such as blood pressure monitoring devices, gurneys, infusion pumps, crash carts, wheelchairs and laptops.

Telehealth is an important development that holds major promise in improving rural healthcare in South Dakota, giving patients access to healthcare without having to travel long distances, reports Black Hills Pioneer.

In South Dakota, telehealth technologies are utilised by three major hospital networks: Avera, Sanford Health and Rapid City Regional. Many of the rural health clinics also utilise these technologies.

The innovations of telehealth include the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical healthcare, and other health-related services for patients and professionals.

During the World of Health IT Conference and Exhibition on 23 October, in Vienna, Microsoft and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) announced a broad expansion of the Microsoft Healthcare Users Group, to partners and healthcare organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, states CNN Money.

MS-HUG is an innovative forum designed to support the development of healthcare solutions and demonstrate how technology can help solve the challenges facing healthcare providers and social services, as well as Microsoft development partners around the world.

MS-HUG achieves this by building co-operation and dialogue among IT professionals and developers, corporate leadership and health organisations.