Proposed prediction algorithms based on hybrid approach to deal with anomalies of RFID data in healthcare

The RFID technology has penetrated the healthcare sector due to its increased functionality, low cost, high reliability, and easy-to-use capabilities. It is being deployed for various applications and the data captured by RFID readers increase according to timestamp resulting in an enormous volume of data duplication, false positive, and false negative. The dirty data stream generated by the RFID readers is one of the main factors limiting the widespread adoption of RFID technology. In order to provide reliable data to RFID application, it is necessary to clean the collected data and this should be done in an effective manner before they are subjected to warehousing. The existing approaches to deal with anomalies are physical, middleware, and deferred approach. The shortcomings of existing approaches are analyzed and found that robust RFID system can be built by integrating the middleware and deferred approach. Our proposed algorithms based on hybrid approach are tested in the healthcare environment which predicts false positive, false negative, and redundant data. In this paper, healthcare environment is simulated using RFID and the data observed by RFID reader consist of anomalies false positive, false negative, and duplication. Experimental evaluation shows that our cleansing methods remove errors in RFID data more accurately and efficiently. Thus, with the aid of the planned data cleaning technique, we can bring down the healthcare costs, optimize business processes, streamline patient identification processes, and improve patient safety

RFID technology for blood tracking: An experimental approach for benchmarking different devices

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the paper is to design a testing protocol to measure performances of RFID devices applied to blood supply chain, and to implement an experimental campaign in order to collect performance data. The protocol matches operational conditions in blood supply chain and is particularly tailored to some critical processes, which can benefit from RFID adoption. The paper thus strives at benchmarking performances of inlays, fixed and handheld RFID readers, when deployed in the blood supply chain processes. DESIGN, METHODOLOGY, APPROACH: The adopted testing protocol enables the assessment of performances of RFID devices in processes of the blood supply chain, since it has been developed peculiarly to emulate critical logistics processes. The testing protocol has been designed jointly with hospital personnel involved in every day operations on blood bags and tubes in order to improve processes, in terms of safety and reliability. The testing protocol has been applied to 3 inlays, 2 fixed readers, 1 mobile handheld in 3 logistics processes, all operating according to UHF EPC class 1 gen 2 protocols and ETSI regulations. We measured and compared read rates, accuracies and read times. FINDINGS: The results of the test give a direct insight of performances to be expected from different RFID devices when deployed in a real-world environment. Therefore, it is possible to give answers to how a specific piece of hardware - such as an inlay or a reader - performs, and how it can be effectively used to improve security of patients in healthcare. At the same time, researchers focusing on the business process reengineering of blood supply chain can assess the technical feasibility of the RFID-reengineered logistics processes in order to improve the safety of end users