Accessing Antecedents and Outcomes of RFID Implementation in Health Care

This research first conceptualizes, develops, and validates four constructs for studying RFID in health care, including Drivers (Internal and External), Implementation Level (Clinical Focus and Administrative Focus), Barriers (Cost Issues, Lack of Understanding, Technical Issues, and Privacy and Security Concerns), and Benefits (Patient Care, Productivity, Security and Safety, Asset Management, and Communication). Data for the study were collected from 88 health care organizations and the measurement scales were validated using structural equation modeling. Second, a framework is developed to discuss the causal relationships among the above mentioned constructs. It is found that Internal Drivers are positively related to Implementation Level, which in turn is positively related to Benefits and Performance. In addition, Barriers are found to be positively related to Implementation Level, which is in contrast to the originally proposed negative relationship. The research also compares perception differences regarding RFID implementation among the non-implementers, future implementers, and current implementers of RFID. It is found that both future implementers and current implementers consider RFID barriers to be lower and benefits to be higher compared to the non-implementers. This paper ends with our research implications, limitations and future research

ANGELAH: A Framework for Assisting Elders At Home

The ever growing percentage of elderly people within modern societies poses welfare systems under relevant stress. In fact, partial and progressive loss of motor, sensorial, and/or cognitive skills renders elders unable to live autonomously, eventually leading to their hospitalization. This results in both relevant emotional and economic costs. Ubiquitous computing technologies can offer interesting opportunities for in-house safety and autonomy. However, existing systems partially address in-house safety requirements and typically focus on only elder monitoring and emergency detection. The paper presents ANGELAH, a middleware-level solution integrating both ”elder monitoring and emergency detection” solutions and networking solutions. ANGELAH has two main features: i) it enables efficient integration between a variety of sensors and actuators deployed at home for emergency detection and ii) provides a solid framework for creating and managing rescue teams composed of individuals willing to promptly assist elders in case of emergency situations. A prototype of ANGELAH, designed for a case study for helping elders with vision impairments, is developed and interesting results are obtained from both computer simulations and a real-network testbed

Traceability -- A Literature Review

In light of recent food safety crises and international trade concerns associated with food or animal associated diseases, traceability has once again become important in the minds of public policymakers, business decision makers, consumers and special interest groups. This study reviews studies on traceability, government regulation and consumer behaviour, provide case studies of current traceability systems and a rough breakdown of various costs and benefits of traceability. This report aims to identify gaps that may currently exist in the literature on traceability in the domestic beef supply chain, as well as provide possible directions for future research into said issue. Three main conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, there is a lack of a common definition of traceability. Hence identifying similarities and differences across studies becomes difficult if not impossible. To this end, this study adopts CFIA’s definition of traceability. This definition has been adopted by numerous other agencies including the EU’s official definition of traceability however it may or may not be acceptable from the perspective of major Canadian beef and cattle trade partners. Second, the studies reviewed in this report address one or more of five key objectives; the impact of changing consumer behaviour on market participants, suppliers incentive to adopt or participate in traceability, impact of regulatory changes, supplier response to crisis and technical description of traceability systems. Drawing from the insights from the consumer studies, it seems as if consumers do not value traceability per se, traceability is a means for consumers to receive validation of another production or process attribute that they are interested in. Moreover, supply chain improvement, food safety control and accessing foreign market segments are strong incentives for primary producers and processors to participate in programs with traceability features. However the objectives addressed by the studies reviewed in this paper are not necessarily the objectives that are of most immediate relevance to decision makers about appropriate traceability standards to recommend, require, subsidize etc. In many cases the research objectives of previous work have been extremely narrow creating a body of literature that is incomplete in certain key areas. Third, case studies of existing traceability systems in Australia, the UK, Scotland, Brazil and Uruguay indicate that the pattern of development varies widely across sectors and regions. In summary, a traceability system by itself cannot provide value-added for all participants in the industry; it is merely a protocol for documenting and sharing information. Value is added to participants in the marketing chain through traceability in the form of reduced transactions costs in the case of a food safety incident and through the ability to shift liability. To ensure consumer benefit and have premiums returned to primary producers the type of information that consumers value is an important issue for future research. A successful program that peaks consumer interest and can enhance their eating experience can generate economic benefits to all sectors in the beef industry. International market access will increasingly require traceability in the marketing system in order to satisfy trade restrictions in the case of animal diseases and country of origin labelling, to name only a few examples. Designing appropriate traceability protocols industry wide is therefore becoming very important.traceability, institutions, Canada, consumer behaviour, producer behaviour, supply chain, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Production Economics, D020, D100, D200, Q100,

Radio Frequency Identification Technology: Applications, Technical Challenges and Strategies

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the technology behind RFID systems, identify the applications of RFID in various industries, and discuss the technical challenges of RFID implementation and the corresponding strategies to overcome those challenges. Design/methodology/approach - Comprehensive literature review and integration of the findings from literature. Findings - Technical challenges of RFID implementation include tag cost, standards, tag and reader selection, data management, systems integration and security. The corresponding solution is suggested for each challenge. Research limitations/implications - A survey type research is needed to validate the results. Practical implications - This research offers useful technical guidance for companies which plan to implement RFID and we expect it to provide the motivation for much future research in this area. Originality/value - As the infancy of RFID applications, few researches have existed to address the technical issues of RFID implementation. Our research filled this gap

Utilization of big data to improve management of the emergency departments. Results of a systematic review

Background. The emphasis on using big data is growing exponentially in several sectors including biomedicine, life sciences and scientific research, mainly due to advances in information technologies and data analysis techniques. Actually, medical sciences can rely on a large amount of biomedical information and Big Data can aggregate information around multiple scales, from the DNA to the ecosystems. Given these premises, we wondered if big data could be useful to analyze complex systems such as the Emergency Departments (EDs) to improve their management and eventually patient outcomes. Methods. We performed a systematic review of the literature to identify the studies that implemented the application of big data in EDs and to describe what have already been done and what are the expectations, issues and challenges in this field. Results. Globally, eight studies met our inclusion criteria concerning three main activities: the management of ED visits, the ED process and activities and, finally, the prediction of the outcome of ED patients. Although the results of the studies show good perspectives regarding the use of big data in the management of emergency departments, there are still some issues that make their use still difficult. Most of the predictive models and algorithms have been applied only in retrospective studies, not considering the challenge and the costs of a real-time use of big data. Only few studies highlight the possible usefulness of the large volume of clinical data stored into electronic health records to generate evidence in real time. Conclusion. The proper use of big data in this field still requires a better management information flow to allow real-time application

RFID and its impacts to the hospital supply chain

A radio frequency identification device (RFID) is a type of information technology used to improve supply chain management through an enhanced visualization of products. The RFID market in the U.S healthcare industry has been projected to be approximately $297 million and has been expected to grow at a rapid speed. RFID had a great impact on the hospital supply chain. It has been demonstrated that 30$100 million had already deployed RFID technology. RFID is the latest technology to reduce costs by tracking both equipment and employees. This technology can also reduce medical error, thus creating a safer environment for patients

Technology Target Studies: Technology Solutions to Make Patient Care Safer and More Efficient

Presents findings on technologies that could enhance care delivery, including patient records and medication processes; features and functionality nurses require, including tracking, interoperability, and hand-held capability; and best practices

A review of challenges and barriers implementing RFID technology in the Healthcare sector

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.All rights reserved. The healthcare industry is progressively involved in adopting new technologies to provide improved quality of care given to patients. The implementation of RFID technology has globally impacted several industries and this revolution has improved the aspects of service delivery in the healthcare industry as well. The RFID technology has the potential to track medical assets and interact with almost any of the medical devices, pharmaceutical materials, IT equipment, or individual patients, deployed in hospitals all over the world. The motivation behind this paper is to investigate the advantages and obstacles to implement RFID technology in the healthcare sector highlighted in the literature. Further, we highlight the most possible methods or technologies to be adapted to overcome the limitations of implementation

Construction safety and digital design: a review

As digital technologies become widely used in designing buildings and infrastructure, questions arise about their impacts on construction safety. This review explores relationships between construction safety and digital design practices with the aim of fostering and directing further research. It surveys state-of-the-art research on databases, virtual reality, geographic information systems, 4D CAD, building information modeling and sensing technologies, finding various digital tools for addressing safety issues in the construction phase, but few tools to support design for construction safety. It also considers a literature on safety critical, digital and design practices that raises a general concern about ‘mindlessness’ in the use of technologies, and has implications for the emerging research agenda around construction safety and digital design. Bringing these strands of literature together suggests new kinds of interventions, such as the development of tools and processes for using digital models to promote mindfulness through multi-party collaboration on safet