RFIT (RFID) is being attracted by pharmaceutical companies and health care managers. Pharmaceutical companies see it as a way to prevent illegal drug transactions, while health care managers want to use it to track medical equipment. At the end of last year, Connecticut Purdue Pharma announced that it is intended to be the first company that integrates RFID to the packaging material when producing. At the meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management System Association held last week, Purdue and Symbol Technologies showed that they plan to use Symbol's RFID mobile computers to further drive the RFID program.
Purdue Vice President and Chief Security Officer Aaron Graham said: "We must discover them until the fake drugs are penetrated into our supply chain. Although it may not bring financial investment returns, how many differences do you have to open for patents? "Graham said the Symbol MC9000-G computer integrating RFID and barcode reading technology with images and wireless connectivity, will provide free to state and federal law enforcement agencies for prevention of illegal drug transactions. Purdue has installed RFID tags on a bottle of two painkillers. The RFID reader captures tag information on each station of the manufacturing line.
The US Food and Drug Administration will RFID as the best means to combat illegal drug transactions. Several states including Florida and California have adopted the law, requiring pharmaceutical companies to track the transportation of drugs during the supply chain movement. Pfizer's spokesperson Bryant Haskins said that by the end of this year, the company will install the RFID tag on the Viagra vial, and plan to use this technology to prevent other products from stealing. Boston Yankee Group analyst Bob Goodman said that most pharmaceutical manufacturers have begun to use RFID to prevent fake experiments. He said, however, many manufacturers work hard to solve the cost problem of the RFID tag - approximately 30 cents per bottle, compared to the cost of barcodes 1 cents per bottle.
At the same time, some hospitals began to use RFID to help medical staff to determine the location of medical equipment faster. Virginia Agility Healthcare Solutions announced last week that it would take advantage of RFID to enable equipment management systems to track 6,000 mobile medical devices in Presbyterian hospitals. Presbyterian Hospital Management Administrator Jason Fahrlander said that hospital forecasts can achieve 200% of investment in the next 5 years by reducing equipment rental costs and labor. Two months ago, the Boston Beth Israel DEACONESS Medical Center began using RFID tags and asset management technology from Pango NetWorks, Massachusetts, to track emergency room equipment. CiO John Halamka, a parent company of Beth Israel, said this technology greatly increases the efficiency of determining the location of the equipment.
German retailer reports RFID's reading rate of 99%
Metro Ag's Metro AG in Germany is the third major retailer in the world, which is reported that it has successfully implemented RFID in its largest and busiest distribution center in Germany. The executive project manager Gerd Wolfram said in a pre-prepared statement that Metro has processed more than 50,000 transport pallets with RFID tags, with a label reading rate of 99%. This distribution center is located in Germany, using RFID readers and labels located in Intermec Technologies in Washington. According to Juniper Co., Ltd., Juniper Co., Ltd., Germany and the United Kingdom are the fastest growing RFID market in Western Europe. After the technical problem is resolved and the test project is completed, the two countries are expected to have widely used this technology in 2006 and 2007. According to Juniper, it is expected that the total RFID market in Western Europe will reach 1 billion US dollars by 2007.
