It's not often a pathologist gets quoted in the Wall Street Journal but one of my colleagues recently did for a story yesterday with the above title which talks about a wide variety of electronic tracking systems to track everything from newborns to equipment.
The story mentions about 10% of U.S. hospitals use some kind of radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags, the most common tracking technology, according to ECRI Institute, a nonprofit consulting group. The group expects most hospitals will have such systems in place within 10 years as prices come down. The market for RFID tags and systems in health care, currently about $120 million, is expected to reach $2.03 billion in 10 years, according to analysis firm IDTechEX.
I have posted a note about my colleagues work here on how RFID tags minimize specimen labeling errors and this was discussed at the recent APIII meeting. The statistics are staggering looking at the experience here and a growing body of literature from investigators worldwide is showing this medical service technology can aid in patient safety.
