National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center Kyoto Council for Information Society Auto-ID Labs Japan IBM Japan, Ltd.

National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center Kyoto Council for Information Society Auto-ID Labs Japan IBM Japan, Ltd.

Today National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto Council for Information Society, Auto-ID Labs Japan and IBM Japan announced that they have developed and successfully demonstrated a platform to trace medications from drug shipment by a pharmaceutical company to in-hospital application by using RFID tags.

These efforts are part of a project to research and develop technology for advanced use and utilization of RFID, which has been promoted as part of the policy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ Information and Communications Policy Bureau since fiscal 2004. Over the next few years, the project will be verifying technology for management of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. Construction of the platform, the first phase of the project, was carried out between April 2004 and March 2005.

Recently, prevention of medical mishaps occurring as the result of contaminated blood products and similar problems have been recognized as a societal concern, and traceability of pharmaceuticals using RFID tags is garnering attention. If a highly secure and tracing system is introduced into medical-related facilities, all kinds of information, starting with product information, manufacturing processes, and other kinds of data proper to particular products, as well as information on what medical procedure was performed, by whom, on which patient, under what authorization, etc., can be monitored using the RFID tags. This expands the possibilities for preventing or minimizing medical mishaps. Under the current project the focus is on the flow of pharmaceuticals from delivery to the Kyoto Medical Center to their administration to patients by doctors or nurses.

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