Radio-Frequency Implantable Device
Introduction
Globally, technology is spontaneously advancing, bringing about new possibilities. One of the recent advancements is in the use of technology in the healthcare system. Following the increase in information data and challenges in data management and storage, there has been a thought seek for a solution that employs the use of technological devices. One of the most thoughtful and researched devices that have been highly debated, to use when handling patients' information is the radio frequency implantable device (RFID), commonly referred to as a chip. The latter device is a wireless system comprising of a tag and a reader, whose operation is through the transmission of radio waves. The reader has antennas whose role is to emit the waves and the tag receives the signals (Islam et al., 2017). Commonly used tags use radio waves to communicate their identity as well as other information to the nearby readers, either actively or passively depending on the sources of their power. For the patients’ health records we would prefer the use of passive RFID tags as they are powered by the reader, to store a range of information concerning patient’s privacy issues such as patients identification, and maintenance of a complete and accurate history of disease processes and medications.
Currently, some countries are already producing chips to make this technological evolution in the healthcare and other sectors a success. For instance, the use of chips has recently been used in Sweden, where over 4000 citizens used microchips implanted in their hands, but in this case to store information concerning emergency contacts that enabled easy access to homes, gyms, and offices. The same technology can, therefore, be used to store health information. For human implantations, we preferred the use of passive readers who rely on power from the readers. By this, it means that the information can only be read when an individual or the health provider has a receiver nearby. Primarily, our concern in this paper is on individual’s health information and accuracy in achieving the information. Additionally, in this paper, we will discuss the pros and cons of using RFID, ethical, legal, and social implications of this device safeguarding patient privacy as well as future recommendations.
Pros and Cons of RFID Technology
New inventions or discoveries based on technology come with some advantages and disadvantages. In conjunction with these technologies related to human health; they may positively or adversely affect individuals. It is for this reason, therefore, that we need understand the pros and cons associated with the introduction and implantation of chips in the body of patients. Below are some of the benefits and disadvantages of RFID technology. This technology can be harnessed in hospitals, labs, and entire supply chains to offer real-time traceability of every blood sample or pallet of medication, and also providing real-time visibility into an individual’s inventory (Paaske et al., 2017). It also enables hospitals to monitor the temperature of heat-sensitive drugs throughout the supply chain, which makes it possible to take the necessary measures to maintain.
In the healthcare organization RFID provides immediate and real-time tracking and management of staff across all types of patient care environments, making it easy to track productivity in busy hospitals. Also, the use of proximity cards offers a secure way of accessing specific areas, without demanding pins now and then. Other advantages of this chip, especially the passive one are that they are of low cost and small, giving them the capability to be attached on small devices. These tags are also, able to tag many items at once and also track assets and other items in areas without internet connections. Overall, this technology helps patients to receive the correct medication within a matter of minutes.
More importantly, RFID has enabled healthcare organizations to realize patients safety, tracking, efficiency in care, and provider satisfaction. The use of tags has helped in reducing misidentification issues in healthcare and thus eliminating medical errors. Also, accuracy in patient tracking is essential in improving patient safety in many instances, it has led to improved ability on hygiene tracking practice and compliance preventing possible hospital-acquired infection (Paaske et al., 2017). Collectively, these measures have made it possible to improve the efficiency of care and healthcare provider services.
Contrary to the benefits, the RFID has been associated with some disadvantages. Despite being a promising strategy in the healthcare industry, some limitations are found in the implementation of the chip, these challenges are either, technical, organizational, or legal. Some of these include the ability to gather the right data, privacy concerns and safety of the patients, monitoring and tracking limitations occurring as a result due to human error. Another issue that stands out as a barrier is the cost of the system and other technical limitations, depending on the tag readability, interoperability with other health information technology, and interference with medical equipment (Paaske et al., 2017). Also, the system has raised some issues based on acceptance within organizations, privacy and security concerns are also disadvantages that need interventions.
Moreover, for this system to work an individual RFID needs to be installed with the readers and antennas in the hospital. The initial installation of the chip is time-consuming as it requires comprehensive entry of inventory, which has to be done manually for the item or the drug to be identified. Another disadvantage is that the device takes people to tags the item or purchase mere expensive pre-tagged medication. The tags at times might be damages and indefinitely they do not read. Commonly the use of tags is not easy as the labels are expensive, associated with interference problems and the lack of a means to track damaged labels.
As stated in the pros, the use of chips, especially RFID, would be so essential in improving the safety and efficiency of healthcare. This would ensure that information is obtained in the right procedures and thus used to address the right problem. Although this process works with everyone, a special group of patients can highly benefit from this mechanism. One of these groups that highly demand the use of this chip is in children, who have had issues of getting lost or interchanged unknowingly (Al Osaimi et al., 2017). This makes it possible to address all the issues concerning the children, especially on data, and that the right medication will be given and the right parents. The healthcare providers, always upload children's information into the Electronic Health Record (EHR) from where the information can be accessed by the clinicians. However, with the aid of chips and the receivers, it is thus possible that the chip is integrated with devices such as smartphones, tablets, or laptops.
Implications
When incorporating this chip among patients it is always good to ensure that their privacy is at the forefront. Privacy in this context is precisely on the medical information that it does not land in the hand of the wrong people. These implications are either, ethical, legal, or social, which in other words are referred to as policies, which an organization needs to set in place to safeguard the patients with the RFID. Based on ethical issues concerning RFID technology, it is the role of healthcare to ensure that patient’s right to life is protected as per the law (Tanwar et al., 2019). It for this reason that we need to understand the no one should be deprived of their ethical obligations. These ethical issues include privacy issues, that no one should be violated of their privacy by the use of this chip. This can be achieved by ensuring that the patient’s information is not used for any other purpose apart from the prescribed. Another issue is that RFID is harmful to the human body, especially through injection of the tags, which affects the body, and lastly, government policies, where the government is in a position to understand the movement of people.
Based on laws, the RFID is not guided by licenses but operates under regulations. For instance in the US federal communications commission (FCC) has put in place some regulations that regulate RFID. It is from these legal laws that the tags can be readily read and that the non-compliant system would be shut down and thus any violations should attract fines. Also, the device should not cause harmful interference, and that there is no interference protection from other wireless operations. From a social perspective, the chip should meet the communities' set standards that govern information sharing. It is also essential to observe community values and beliefs on the introduction of foreign chips into their bodies. Any violation of the set rules and community is a source of a societal problem.
Conclusion
In conclusion, RFID is useful in providing health records or information about a patient’s history and other issues related to medication. RFID has been found to have many advantages that make it a topic of debate among many people. This chip would also help address health issues among the children, whose records help in identification to eliminate increased mixed-up. Additionally, it is also essential to observe to ensure that human privacy and security are the main issues that make us concerned with chip technology. I would therefore recommend that future researchers, engage in informed study to help in the elimination of all the barriers that are associated with the adoption of RFID. This would make it possible to promote health and deliver safe patient care.
References
Al Osaimi, A. A., Al Kadi, K., & Saddik, B. (2017, February). Role of radio frequency identification in improving infant safety and the extent of nursing staff acceptance of RFID at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. In 2017 International Conference on Informatics, Health & Technology (ICIHT) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
Islam, M. T., Alam, T., Yahya, I., & Cho, M. (2018). Flexible radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag antenna for sensor applications. Sensors, 18(12), 4212.
Paaske, S., Bauer, A., Moser, T., & Seckman, C. (2017). The benefits and barriers to RFID technology in healthcare. On-Line Journal of Nursing Informatics, 21(2).
Pang, Y., Ding, H., Liu, J., Fang, Y., & Chen, S. (2018). A UHF RFID-based system for children tracking. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 5(6), 5055-5064.
Tanwar, S., Tyagi, S., Kumar, N., & Obaidat, M. S. (2019). Ethical, legal, and social implications of biometric technologies. In Biometric-based physical and cybersecurity systems (pp. 535-569). Springer, Cham.
