Bar coding has been around for decades and very proven in the marketplace. It is easy, not costly, and is pretty much error free. The “decode” is dependent upon the proper (previous laser scanning, now CCD imagers), capturing the entire bar code. If you ever have seen issues with “scanning” at a retail establishment, it is that the surface needs to be somewhat flat to have a valid decode for the entire symobolology. (generic term for bar codes). I worked also in this industry.
When the original BCMA application came out; there were challenges with a typical UPC code on an administration/patient wrist band (curved on wrist), hence why the move toward composite or 2D.
RFID (not RFLS), has been talked about a lot for use in healthcare. The challenge is the cost of the RFID tags and the proprietary readers. So at the end of the day, the use of bar coding has been proven to meet the healthcare market requirements for validating the 5 rights at the point of care. It is reliable, proven, and does not cost much to implement.
What a lot of folks have forgot about all of this is that it adds extra work load onto the clinician. Clinicians went to school to take care of patients; not technology. So in some cases I have seen clinicians have become very creative in accomplishing “work arounds”.
It is felt that the use of BTLE changes the game. First we envision that BTLE should be in every medical device going forward. The rationale is that is secure, light years ahead of Bluetooth 2.0, and been adopted by every IOS and Android platform, yet alone thousands of others in the mobility space.
What is the Difference Between Bluetooth Low Energy Technology and Classic Bluetooth Technology?
With the introduction of Bluetooth low energy technology, considerable interest has been seen on its possibilities. Bluetooth low energy technology has some important limitations as well as benefits; it is quite different from Classic Bluetooth technology:
• Bluetooth low energy technology enables new applications and is ideal for applications requiring episodic or periodic transfer of small amounts of data.
• In a Bluetooth application where streaming data is used, Classic Bluetooth technology is the preferred choice as it achieves substantially greater throughput than Bluetooth low energy technology. Power consumption: Since a Bluetooth low energy device is in sleep mode most of the time – the maximum/peak power consumption is only 15 mA and the average power consumption is of only about 1 uA.
Connection set-up times: In Bluetooth low energy technology the actual connection times are of only a few mS and thereby the connection is quickly initiated as the device wakes up.
Robustness: Many features of Classic Bluetooth technology are inherited in Bluetooth low energy technology including Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) as well as part of the Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) interface.
Throughput: Data transfer rates with Classic Bluetooth technology using Enhanced Data Rate (Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR) can exceed 2 Mbps (actual payload), but practical transfer rates for Bluetooth low energy technology are below 100 kbps (actual payload of roughly 1/20).
Profile support: Bluetooth low energy technology provides no support for the Serial Port Profile (SPP) in the standard Specification v4.0; although suppliers like connectBlue can provide a good level of support. Many other profiles are not offered for Bluetooth low energy technology because of the differences in the connection models. The Classic Bluetooth scenarios that are not part of Bluetooth low energy technology include headset (HSP), object exchange (OBEX), audio distribution (A2DP), video distribution (VDP) and file transfer (FTP).
Number of nodes: Just as with Classic Bluetooth technology, Bluetooth low energy technology is based on a master connected to a number of slaves. However, in Bluetooth low energy technology the number of slaves can be very large; how large depends on the implementation and available memory.
Advertising: The new “advertising” functionality of Bluetooth low energy technology makes it possible for a slave to announce that it has something to transmit to other devices that are “scanning.” “Advertising” messages can also include an event or a measurement value.
Software structure: In Bluetooth low energy technology all parameters have a state that is accessed using the Attribute Protocol. Attributes are represented as characteristics that describe signal value, presentation format, client configuration, etc.
Apple connectivity: Bluetooth low energy technology – which is implemented in iPhone 4S – supports Apple connectivity without the use of an Apple Co-processor.
So what if you could have this built into every medical device, have a ID card with BTLE with authentication and biometrics, yet alone a hospital identification wrist band?
You would eliminate the need for having to scan multiple different types of bar codes and devices at the point of care. It would eliminate the extra work load, be safe, be totally secure, and decrease costs.
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