Counterfeiters, run for cover: IBM today unveiled a new RFID system for tracking and tracing of pharmaceuticals. The system makes it more difficult for counterfeit drugs to get to market, protecting consumers by helping ensure the drugs they receive match the prescription from their physician. With RFID already getting kudos from the FDA, we bet […]

VeriChip is partnering with Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey on a 24-month clinical trail to prove its FDA-approved implantable VeriMed Patient Identification System saves lives. The physician-insurance collaboration, taking place at Hackensack University Medical Center, pairs VeriChip’s RFID-infused microchips with chronically ill patients so that ER physicians can access those patients’ […]

It’s a teeny, tiny memory chip the size of a grain. Called “Memory Spot,” Hewlett-Packard’s new wireless data chip, announced this week, can be attached to any object, making information more ubiquitous. But it’s got big, big power. And it’s expected to rival RFID in various applications, such as hospital writstbands for patient identification. HP […]

Urgent care facilities, hospitals, and health centers will enjoy numerous paybacks when RFID becomes part of the care plan, says Chainlink Research. The company’s latest report, “RFID in Clinical Settings: New Dimensions in the Chain of Care” evaluates potential uses of RFID, examining benefits and risks of the technology within a clinical environment. Among them, […]

In another collaboration for world dominance in RFID (or at least to make current product lines better), Zebra Technologies Corp. just announced plans to license Magellan’s Phase Jitter Modulatin (PJM) RFID technology. What’s that, you say? “Ratified in 2004, PJM is an HF RFID system specified in an existing global standard: ISO/IEC 18000-3 mode 2, […]

Here’s the good news: Dutch trial of battery-powered RFID tags in standard medication blister packages, sponsored by Novartis, clearly shows the benefits the technology can have for patient compliance. However, cost is still too high for adoption, ccording to this article posted earlier. The study included 275 patients, 600 packs of Novartis’s hypertension medication Diovan […]

SAFE BioPharma’s secure signatures to be adopted by more docs in coming year By Marisa Torrieri, Contributing Editor Expect to see an influx of doctors using digital signatures in lieu of cumbersome paper-pen-fax combinations to authorize medical care, services and prescriptions. Using public key infrastructure (PKI) with certificates held on a smart card, USB fob, […]