How do you forget surgical instruments in a patient?!

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Having strange abdominal pain? Have you had a surgery in the past ten years? I am sure many of you have heard of cases where a patient after surgery goes home with medical instruments left in their body. Scary, huh? Radio Frequency Identification can be the solution to sleepy doctors leaving scissors and other instruments in the patient’s body. RFID tags are now being placed on physician’s surgical instruments. After the surgery is performed, the patient is scanned to see if any of the instruments containing the RFID tags are left behind. Now patients can go to surgery without worrying about leaving with extra parts in their body.

http://www.iopp.org/files/public/CAPolytechJDHoward.pdf

RFID technology is also used to make the pharmaceutical supply chain more efficient. Pharmaceutical goods tagged with RFID can be tracked faster in the supply chain process. The RFID can reduce administrative error and increase overall inventory control. Pharmaceutical products are prone to counterfeiting problems and the RFID is the perfect solution because, unlike bar codes, RFID tags are hard to replicate. The FDA is working on implementing RFID tags for regulatory purposes. Pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Purdue Pharma are currently working on RFID projects.


The new Healthcare Bill (Subtitle C-11 Section 2521-National Medical Device Registry) once implemented will require every citizen of the U.S. to be implanted with an RFID chip to control who is and isn’t allowed medical care. (http://www.dailypaul.com/105079/microchiping-included-in-healthcare-bill) If you recall in our previous blog, we discussed how the Verichip implantation into humans was later stopped because of the discovery of cancerous tumors in rats. Would you agree to be injected with an RFID tag after reading this blog post?

In 2006, the number of tags used in the medical field was 35 million compared to 16 billion in 2010. (http://www.iopp.org/files/public/CAPolytechJDHoward.pdf) It is apparent that RFID has its benefits in the medical field such as protecting patients from having surgical instruments forgotten in their body after surgery… but how far are we willing to go for technological advances? Don’t hesitate to leave your comments or concerns about this topic.