RFID Technology to ensure patient safety and improve supply chain efficiency in the health care segment

RFID Technology to ensure patient safety and improve supply chain efficiency in Health care segment

The need to implement RFID Technology is now widely accepted   by Hospitals and Health care providers throughout the world. The rewards are huge in terms of its vital applications like tracking patients and precious assets like diagnostic and surgical instruments and drugs in the hospitals and ensure patient’s safety. The pilot tests are being conducted and it is a well known fact that the applications shall bring far reaching effects in the healthcare segment. At times, during the catastrophic situations like out-break of human version of mad cow disease, it is important to track the contaminated and infected equipments to avoid exposure to patients. RFID Technology makes such tracking and identification fast and smooth. Proper protocols and the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology could prevent such outbreaks by ensuring instruments are properly tracked and classified. This and other RFID

Applications can provide significant benefits to the healthcare industry to ensure patient safety and improve supply chain efficiency.

RFID technology can greatly contribute to the healthcare industry with Wi-Fi and voice over IP (VoIP), creating a single information system that can track patients and hospital assets, improve patient safety, play a role in running clinical trials of drugs, manage critical care assets and hospital equipment, reduce counterfeiting of pharmaceutical products, reduce medical errors, and cut costs improving efficiency.

The applications are plenty and can be broadly summarized as:

• Patient tracking and identification
• Asset and Equipment management and tracking
• Reducing drug and blood administration errors
• Making newborns more secure

Simply put these  potential applications provide advantage to healthcare industry in terms of: tagging patient wristbands with ID and care information, managing distribution of medications, coupling with Nano sensor technology to remotely monitor patients via implant, provide inventory control, and prevent theft.

A popular and vital application of RFID is to track surgical sponges to ensure they are not inadvertently left behind inside patients. And many hospitals are now tracking patients to ensure the right patient is given the proper care. These systems tend to reduce the data-entry workload of nurses, and also let them spend more time caring for patients. Additionally, hospitals are tracking high-value assets, including , wheel chairs, oxygen pumps and defibrillators. These systems reduce the time employees spend looking for assets, improve asset utilization and enhance the hospitals' ability to performed scheduled maintenance.

What is RFID Technology

RFID is a wireless technology working on UHF range of frequencies. RFID system consists of transceiver equipped with an antenna, a tag and a reader acting as an intermediary between the identification and the background system consisting of computer system and associated software displaying the information about Goods like country of origin, description, expiry date, destination, handling details etc.   Electronic product code is the key standard for RFID in Retailing driven by EPC global which works in close collaboration with GSI. RFID tags were earlier used for marking cattles and pets and as such are not a new invention. However during the last few years plans encompassing entire value chain using RFID Tags right from procurement of material up to the finished goods available on the shelves at the point of purchase for the customers have emerged. Tags make it possible to identify each Logistics unit or even each individual product and track their way through the supply chain. 

RFID Tags are used in different shapes and sizes and their costs have been brought down to few cents. The Tags are divided in two parts viz Active and passive:

Active Tags can usually be complemented with new information as they proceed in the supply chain. Whereas Passive Tags are for one time use and only send data which is stored in them initially. A passive tag draws energy from the reader whereas an active tag has its own battery and draws power from there. Read – write tags can be erased and can be used many times along with the ability to   rewrite the data. Wal – Mart made it mandatory the use of RFID Technology by its top 100 suppliers at the case level.

Advantages of RFID Technology over traditional identification methods like bar code

• RFID Technology makes it possible to read large number of items simultaneously
• The process is automatic without involving manual intervention.
• The devices are always on and ready to read.
• Code reading does not require a visual line of sight so it can take place even through the side of truck without unloading.
• Tags can contain large amount of information.  

RFID is now generating significant interest in the marketplace because of its robust application capabilities. RFID enables healthcare facilities improve overall safety and operational efficiency because it operates without line-of-sight while providing read/write capabilities for dynamic item tracking. Surgical instruments and other devices must be properly cleaned and packaged between uses. Tags on the instruments and readers on the sterilization chambers and storage cabinets can validate proper cleaning and help locate needed instruments. Since medical devices are often mounted on portable carts, smart tags placed on the devices and readers installed in the doorways can enable personnel to quickly locate a crucial piece of equipment and immediately determine its fitness for use.

Category of Application in Healthcare segment

Patient Tracking

Patient identification and location assistance are often needed to ensure patient safety when urgent medical attention is needed.Patient tags with RFID chips will meet this need.

Product Tracking

Hospitals currently have to track health hazardous radioactive isotopes throughout the facility from storage to transport and then from administration todisposal. RFID tags and readers can automate these tasks therebysaving time and resources.Active RFID tags with read/write capabilities can be used to detectseal integrity for containers and individual packages. The tag canrecord the time and duration of seal loss, allowing even problemsthat occur mid-shipment to be detected. Asset tracking by RFID thus can minimize thefts and losses increasing thereby return on investments. Due to RFID Tags being read in automated operation without requiring manual intervention, unattended and constant tracking is provided by the well designed RFID systems.

Inventory Management

Large amounts of inventory needs to be managed in hospital operating rooms. RFID technologycan provide an accurate account of both official and unofficial inventory levels.

Drug Counterfeiting

Pharmaceutical companies, distributors, and hospitals need technology to deter drug counterfeiting. According to world Health Organization, t between 5 to 8 percent of global pharmaceuticals are counterfeit. While in some countries this percentage may still go higher ranging between 25 to 40 percent. The losses reported are around $2 billionper year due to counterfeit drugs.n Counterfeit drugs adversely affect people’s lives by preventing patients from receiving needed medication and in country like India, many patients fall prey to it due to its low cost. Fortunately, RFID tags can help detect products that are, Counterfeit or fake, Tampered with, adulterated or substituted expired.

Clinical Trials

 As new drugs go through the clinical trial phase, RFID technology is used for accurately tracking patient usage. In fact It improves the tracking of drug usage throughout the clinical-phase testing protocols.

Medical Device and Asset Tracking

RFID has strong application potential with medical device companies.  Medical device companies need better control  on consignment with hospitals because returns can occur more than 50 percent of the time. RFID technology that improves visibility into returns could enable faster redeployment since the company would know sooner when an unused product could be returned.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Technology helps Pharmaceutical Companies and Retailers to improve their supply chains and resulting in reduction of cost and improvement in Efficiency

RFID technology helps in tracking movement of medicines and items through the supply chain of Enterprises helping in reduction of costs and improvement in efficiency. The movement of goods starts right from supply of raw material from initial suppliers to manufacturing unit of such companies and then movement of finished goods to Customers through distribution channels consisting of dealers, Wholesalers and retailers. The transportation of material in cartons and pallets to warehouses takes place via ships, rail road, air and trucks. Companies like Wal-Mart have successfully used the RFID Technology and rose to become number one company in the world after beating big Conglomerates like K-Mart and Sears in their own game of retailing.

RFID technology has been used by major pharmaceutical companies and Retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Tesco, Metro, and Albertsons and by Government departments like U.S. Defence.

Indian Scenario

In India, RFID will be used extensively across the country in near future. Apollo hospital uses RFID technology  to speed checkups of the patients. As of now, the Department of Posts and Companies like BHEL have stated using RFID to track parcels. The awareness of RFID application is catching up and bar codes shall soon be replaced by far superior and potent technology like RFID with industries, utilities and service organizations like hospitals.

Written By

Professor Akhil Chandra

Academic Head, Logistics and Supply Chain

Institute of Logistics and Aviation Management (ILAM)

Indian Clinical Research Institute ICRI, Okhla Phase I

New  Delhi

9810223277, E-Mail : akhilchandra06@gmail.com

Global Care expands into India and Russia!

GlobalCare Expands into India and Russia
Drug Discovery & Development - June 23, 2011

GlobalCare Clinical Trials, Ltd. announced an expansion into India and Russia to meet the demands of biopharmaceutical companies that want to  increase clinical trials presence in the two countries,  access large populations of treatment-naïve patients, and lower overall costs.
The company provides services to over 25 countries including the United States, Canada, Israel, Australia and countries in Latin America and throughout Europe.
“GlobalCare can deliver clinical trial services to these populations in settings like their home, office or alternate setting,” says Gail Adinamis, founder and chief executive officer of GlobalCare.  “As the industry demand for optimized study logistics grows globally, we will continue to expand our network to keep pace with these needs.”
GlobalCare maintains a centrally managed network of GCP/ICH-trained and certified multilingual country coordinators with knowledge of local medical practices and country cultural attitudes. It has a network of more than 25,000 qualified local traveling physicians, nurses and phlebotomists.

source:GlobalCare Clinical Trials, Ltd.

hospital supply chain management

           An Article on Hospital Supply Chain Management system (HSCM)

Healthcare sector is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in the world. For this phenomenal growth, the prominent key drivers are-

- Globalization and the advancement of information and communication technologies

- Control and automation techniques embedded in different and changing governance systems.

Supply chain management techniques which have successfully been employed almost throughout the segments of Industry are employed in health care sector also. Like other segments, here also these techniques have successfully been employed to match supply and demand so as to supply the material in the right quantity, at the place and at right price. 

Why Supply Chain approach to Hospitals?

A popular notion is that supply chain concepts can be applied largely to manufacturing operations  and are not applicable to service operations. But this is not true.Like every Enterprise, hospitals and health systems are equally under pressure to control their rising costs of supplies primarily locked up in inventories consisting of pharmacy, surgery, medicines and drugs and yet maintain their ultimate obligation in providing timely, efficient and effective treatments to their customers (patients). The supply chain costs represent today the second largest expenditure category of hospital’s operating expenses next to costly manpower. These costs are increasing exponentially due to –

·         Growth in usage of medication  and very expensive and very clinically sensitive devices and implants

·         Service lines such as interventional cardiology and total joint replacement surgery using high value supplies such as supplants and drug coated stunts.

·         The rise in IT budgets at healthcare institutions

·         Increased cost of drug development, production and distribution

·         Cost of  packaging and labeling requirements of Drugs

It is as such important to have a close look on supply chain management system of hospitals with an Endeavor to make it efficient, integrated and synchronized. The subject popularly known as HSCM (Hospital supply chain management system) due to its potential in saving heavy costs and in satisfying patients has gained its prime importance in healthcare industry.  Senior financial executives as such these days need to recalculate the strategic significance of the supply chain and plan accordingly

Inefficiencies in supply chain unlike in other domains of industry may result in extreme cases even into death of patients. As such apart from cost reductions, an effective supply chain is very vital to human life and its longevity. Ultimate objective of this subject is to manage materials/equipments and manpower   like doctors, nurses and other supporting staff and treat patients and transform them into a healthy person at a reasonable and optimum cost in minimum time so as to satisfy their expectations through quality treatment. Innumerable flows between suppliers and customers, both upstream and downstream, have to be considered to strike a balance.

Supply Chain of Hospitals

Supply Chain ( also can be characterized as value Chain) of hospitals integrates suppliers, transport and warehouses and hospital services (including outpatient, emergency, in-patient, laboratory, radiology, stores and purchase, food, laundry and medicines /equipments) so as to serve the patients by optimum utilization of resources. The resources in terms of materials/medicines used in the hospital can be classified majorly based on their applications such as diagnostic, Surgical, Therapeutic, Bedside, Service, Engineering, Housekeeping and ICT.To substantially reduce supply-related costs, a hospital must develop a fully integrated enterprise wide supply chain in which all processes as mentioned above  are coordinated and supported by state-of-the-art technology. A pertinent question which should be asked to hospitals is whether your organization delivers  the right product to the right place at the right time and for the right price? If not then situation demands for a thorough check up of your processes and give your hospitals a treatment of ‘Supply Chain Management’.

How Improvements in supply chain in healthcare sector can be affected?

Basically the process improvement opportunities exist in five key areas: (1) contingency plans (2) supply chain integrity; (3) Demand pull model (4) Cutting down on too many intermediate partners (5) value visibility.
Contingency plans
As the supply chain involves factories producing medicines and diagnostic equipments, temperature controlled warehouses and distribution facilities to keep the material flow in order, what happens if a factory producing life saving medicine gets destroyed or the distribution facilities disruptions hamper the product flow endangering human life?   The most effective action is to develop systematic contingency plans, including factors like alternative production sites, manufacturing flexibility, factory-direct shipping capabilities, offsite backup distribution center capacity, and critical safety stocks.
Supply chain integrity

Quality assurance, such as lot integrity and tracking, is a crucial healthcare supply chain function. It ensures that patients receive safe therapies, and that problems are contained and minimized. New technologies, such as radio frequency identification (RFID), offer the prospect of ensuring supply chain integrity. Through automatic identification, traceability and visibility tools, healthcare companies are given the opportunity to make the Healthcare supply chain more efficient and accurate, and thus safer by:

·         Reducing medication errors

·         Making counterfeiting more difficult

·         Enabling efficient and effective traceability

·         Decreasing the production and supply chain cost

Demand Pull Model
Healthcare supply chains need to move toward an integrated "demand-pull" model, so that manufacturers have much earlier visibility into actual consumption. In many other industries, this integrated supply chain system has enabled the participants to align production and distribution much more closely with actual demand. All the channel participants can see and understand what they need to do individually and together in order to successfully lower costs and increase service levels. Healthcare supply chains would free up tremendous amounts of valuable resources by adopting this channel model; important elements, such as ICT and process control systems to provide real-time information at point of patient infusion/injection, are now being put in place.
Cut down too many intermediate partners
 The prospect of disintermediation, moving product directly from manufacturers to providers, is growing stronger in healthcare supply chains. This process offers important economic benefits. But it is only appropriate in certain situations, and it requires that manufacturers and providers develop new expertise and trust. To give a successful example from other segment of industry, Wal-Mart and Proctor and Gamble built a strong and sustainable relationship between them and the rewards were in terms of win-win situation for both of them to become world leaders in their respective areas.
Value Creation by individual partners
At present health care supply chains are fragmented and the current pricing structures and channel policies reinforce the inefficiency of this fragmented sector. Distributors negotiate volume discounts from manufacturers, and offer discounts to providers. What is important is to have trust in each partner and work towards common goal of value creation, which is the precondition for major improvements in supply chain efficiency. In well-functioning supply chains, each participant has an important role in creating unique, visible value as product flows from source to consumption. Instead of competing within the value chain, one supply chain of the hospital should compete with another value chain of the hospitals for sustainability, survival and competitive advantage..
Conclusion
Supply Chain Management in other industries has got its due recognition and this subject now is considered to be a  board level topic. Now conditions are right for another round of major healthcare supply chain improvements due to  pressure on management to reduce costs and increase efficiency and have a customer responsive approach. This has happened especially after hospital chains of multinationals have arrived in India. Healthcare budgets are very tight, supply chains have critical vulnerabilities, and providers have significant opportunities for much-needed process improvements. The supply chain as such should be part of the enterprise strategic plan, incorporated across all components and service lines of hospitals. A hospital's or health system's strategic plan should include supply chain management as a key strategy for maintaining fiscal goals, improving quality and satisfaction levels, and addressing industry trends and developments. There is a tremendous scope of applying IT, telecommunication techniques and Automation in hospitals. The mantra is to concentrate on improving efficiency, quality, responsiveness to patients and apply innovative methods of supply chain coupled with technology to achieve the end goals.

Written by Professor Akhil Chandra

Institute of Logistics and Aviation Management

Professor akhil Chandra can be approached on his E-Mail akhilchandra06@gmail.com

RFID Technology to ensure patient safety and improve supply chain efficiency

RFID Technology to ensure patient safety and improve supply chain efficiency in Health care segment

The need to implement RFID Technology is now widely accepted   by Hospitals and Health care providers throughout the world. The rewards are huge in terms of its vital applications like tracking patients and precious assets like diagnostic and surgical instruments and drugs in the hospitals and ensure patient’s safety. The pilot tests are being conducted and it is a well known fact that the applications shall bring far reaching effects in the healthcare segment. At times, during the catastrophic situations like out-break of human version of mad cow disease, it is important to track the contaminated and infected equipments to avoid exposure to patients. RFID Technology makes such tracking and identification fast and smooth. Proper protocols and the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology could prevent such outbreaks by ensuring instruments are properly tracked and classified. This and other RFID

Applications can provide significant benefits to the healthcare industry to ensure patient safety and improve supply chain efficiency.

RFID technology can greatly contribute to the healthcare industry with Wi-Fi and voice over IP (VoIP), creating a single information system that can track patients and hospital assets, improve patient safety, play a role in running clinical trials of drugs, manage critical care assets and hospital equipment, reduce counterfeiting of pharmaceutical products, reduce medical errors, and cut costs improving efficiency.

The applications are plenty and can be broadly summarized as:

• Patient tracking and identification
• Asset and Equipment management and tracking
• Reducing drug and blood administration errors
• Making newborns more secure

Simply put these  potential applications provide advantage to healthcare industry in terms of: tagging patient wristbands with ID and care information, managing distribution of medications, coupling with Nano sensor technology to remotely monitor patients via implant, provide inventory control, and prevent theft.

A popular and vital application of RFID is to track surgical sponges to ensure they are not inadvertently left behind inside patients. And many hospitals are now tracking patients to ensure the right patient is given the proper care. These systems tend to reduce the data-entry workload of nurses, and also let them spend more time caring for patients. Additionally, hospitals are tracking high-value assets, including , wheel chairs, oxygen pumps and defibrillators. These systems reduce the time employees spend looking for assets, improve asset utilization and enhance the hospitals' ability to performed scheduled maintenance.

What is RFID Technology

RFID is a wireless technology working on UHF range of frequencies. RFID system consists of transceiver equipped with an antenna, a tag and a reader acting as an intermediary between the identification and the background system consisting of computer system and associated software displaying the information about Goods like country of origin, description, expiry date, destination, handling details etc.   Electronic product code is the key standard for RFID in Retailing driven by EPC global which works in close collaboration with GSI. RFID tags were earlier used for marking cattles and pets and as such are not a new invention. However during the last few years plans encompassing entire value chain using RFID Tags right from procurement of material up to the finished goods available on the shelves at the point of purchase for the customers have emerged. Tags make it possible to identify each Logistics unit or even each individual product and track their way through the supply chain. 

RFID Tags are used in different shapes and sizes and their costs have been brought down to few cents. The Tags are divided in two parts viz Active and passive:

Active Tags can usually be complemented with new information as they proceed in the supply chain. Whereas Passive Tags are for one time use and only send data which is stored in them initially. A passive tag draws energy from the reader whereas an active tag has its own battery and draws power from there. Read – write tags can be erased and can be used many times along with the ability to   rewrite the data. Wal – Mart made it mandatory the use of RFID Technology by its top 100 suppliers at the case level.

Advantages of RFID Technology over traditional identification methods like bar code

• RFID Technology makes it possible to read large number of items simultaneously
• The process is automatic without involving manual intervention.
• The devices are always on and ready to read.
• Code reading does not require a visual line of sight so it can take place even through the side of truck without unloading.
• Tags can contain large amount of information.  

RFID is now generating significant interest in the marketplace because of its robust application capabilities. RFID enables healthcare facilities improve overall safety and operational efficiency because it operates without line-of-sight while providing read/write capabilities for dynamic item tracking. Surgical instruments and other devices must be properly cleaned and packaged between uses. Tags on the instruments and readers on the sterilization chambers and storage cabinets can validate proper cleaning and help locate needed instruments. Since medical devices are often mounted on portable carts, smart tags placed on the devices and readers installed in the doorways can enable personnel to quickly locate a crucial piece of equipment and immediately determine its fitness for use.

Category of Application in Healthcare segment

Patient Tracking

Patient identification and location assistance are often needed to ensure patient safety when urgent medical attention is needed.Patient tags with RFID chips will meet this need.

Product Tracking

Hospitals currently have to track health hazardous radioactive isotopes throughout the facility from storage to transport and then from administration todisposal. RFID tags and readers can automate these tasks therebysaving time and resources.Active RFID tags with read/write capabilities can be used to detectseal integrity for containers and individual packages. The tag canrecord the time and duration of seal loss, allowing even problemsthat occur mid-shipment to be detected. Asset tracking by RFID thus can minimize thefts and losses increasing thereby return on investments. Due to RFID Tags being read in automated operation without requiring manual intervention, unattended and constant tracking is provided by the well designed RFID systems.

Inventory Management

Large amounts of inventory needs to be managed in hospital operating rooms. RFID technologycan provide an accurate account of both official and unofficial inventory levels.

Drug Counterfeiting

Pharmaceutical companies, distributors, and hospitals need technology to deter drug counterfeiting. According to world Health Organization, t between 5 to 8 percent of global pharmaceuticals are counterfeit. While in some countries this percentage may still go higher ranging between 25 to 40 percent. The losses reported are around $2 billionper year due to counterfeit drugs.n Counterfeit drugs adversely affect people’s lives by preventing patients from receiving needed medication and in country like India, many patients fall prey to it due to its low cost. Fortunately, RFID tags can help detect products that are, Counterfeit or fake, Tampered with, adulterated or substituted expired.

Clinical Trials

 As new drugs go through the clinical trial phase, RFID technology is used for accurately tracking patient usage. In fact It improves the tracking of drug usage throughout the clinical-phase testing protocols.

Medical Device and Asset Tracking

RFID has strong application potential with medical device companies.  Medical device companies need better control  on consignment with hospitals because returns can occur more than 50 percent of the time. RFID technology that improves visibility into returns could enable faster redeployment since the company would know sooner when an unused product could be returned.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Technology helps Pharmaceutical Companies and Retailers to improve their supply chains and resulting in reduction of cost and improvement in Efficiency

RFID technology helps in tracking movement of medicines and items through the supply chain of Enterprises helping in reduction of costs and improvement in efficiency. The movement of goods starts right from supply of raw material from initial suppliers to manufacturing unit of such companies and then movement of finished goods to Customers through distribution channels consisting of dealers, Wholesalers and retailers. The transportation of material in cartons and pallets to warehouses takes place via ships, rail road, air and trucks. Companies like Wal-Mart have successfully used the RFID Technology and rose to become number one company in the world after beating big Conglomerates like K-Mart and Sears in their own game of retailing.

RFID technology has been used by major pharmaceutical companies and Retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Tesco, Metro, and Albertsons and by Government departments like U.S. Defence.

Indian Scenario

In India, RFID will be used extensively across the country in near future. Apollo hospital uses RFID technology  to speed checkups of the patients. As of now, the Department of Posts and Companies like BHEL have stated using RFID to track parcels. The awareness of RFID application is catching up and bar codes shall soon be replaced by far superior and potent technology like RFID with industries, utilities and service organizations like hospitals.

Written By

Professor Akhil Chandra

Academic Head, Logistics and Supply Chain

Institute of Logistics and Aviation Management (ILAM)

Indian Clinical Research Institute ICRI, Okhla Phase I

New  Delhi

9810223277, E-Mail : akhilchandra06@gmail.com

safety concerns for medicines in pharmacovigilience

The new drug development is a challenging process where patient safety is of prime importance. The old and new drugs need constant watch and safety monitoring due to unexpected responses of the drug under different conditions. This aspect is covered under a closely associated branch of clinical research called Pharmacovigilance.

Pharmacovigilance is a new discipline to the students of India which provides newer and better opportunities to aspirants across the country who wish to build their career in the field of pharmacological science.

Pharmacovigilance is a discipline which is concerned with identifying, validating, quantifying, evaluating and minimizing the adverse effects of medicine thereby increasing the safety of drugs in use. It is a study of drug related adverse effect carried out by pharmaceutical industries to suggest warnings and recommendation for product withdrawal.

Pharmacovigilance is not only an academic necessity but also a need to ensure security of human beings. It is an accepted opinion of the mass to scrutinize the adverse effects of medicines which have been released in the market.

The Government also puts forward a supportive hand and takes immediate actions for the implementation of such a course so that people become aware of the adverse effects of drugs which can be reduced by a discipline like pharmacovigilance.

Pharmacovigilance is important to implement quality systems in all pharmaceutical companies which produce huge amount of medicines that are marketed in India and Western Countries. All drugs need to be monitored for safety for their entire life cycle i.e. it’s a never ending process.