Chapter 7, Problem-Solving Activities #3

Nursihah Bt Amir – 084990

Question #3

Examine how new data capture devices such as RFID tags help organization accurately identify and segment their customers for activities such as targeted marketing. Browse the Web and develop five potential new application for RFID technology not listed in this chapter. What issues would arise if a country's laws mandated that such devices be embedded in everyone's body as a national identification system?

Answer

Other than retrieving and gathering information on product location (Supply Chain) as explained in the book. Other efforts to increase company sales are beginning to emerge in the industry.

Targeted Advertising.

In 2008, marketers started to use targeted advertising. Dunkin' Donuts was one of the first marketer to begin testing the new technology, at two of their stores in New York and Buffalo. People ordering a coffee in the morning can see ads at the cash register promoting the chain's hash browns or breakfast sandwiches. At the pick-up counter, customers see ads prompting them to return for a coffee break in the afternoon and try an oven-toasted pizza.

In a separate test, Procter & Gamble is placing radio-frequency identification tags on products at a Metro Extra retail store in Germany so that when a customer pulls the product off the shelf, a digital screen at eye level changes its message. When a consumer picks out a shampoo for a particular type of hair, for instance, the screen recommends the most appropriate conditioner or other hair products, says John Paulson, president of G2 Interactive, a digital-marketing arm of WPP Group's G2 Network.

Activities such as target marketing and target advertising have helped marketers to increase their sales tremendously. This is because using RFID is capable of personalizing sales.

Patient Tracking System

RFID-based wristband enables the implementation of “patient tracking system”. With this system, hospital staff will have a better way to keep track of wandering Alzheimer and paediatric patients. Real Time Location System (RLTS) that is based on RFID technology can be used to ensure that the patients do not go into unauthorized areas.

Tagging Surgical Instrument

Another approach in improving patient safety is by tagging surgical instrument with RFID. There are a number of advantages of doing this, for example, to minimise the mistake of leaving an item inside a patient. Before a patient is sewn up after an operation, a handheld RFID reader could be used to ensure all surgical items, for example, gauze sponge, is not retained in the patient’s body.

Analysing operational inefficiency

Movement of drugs, medical equipments, patients and personnel can be tracked using RFID. Data gathered from those movements can be recorded and analysed for finding inefficiency of the current process and procedures. From the analysis, the overall operation can be improved.

Managing surgical instruments

Operational efficiency in hospitals can be increased by improving management of medical instruments and other assets. High cost medical instruments require high level of traceability. This is to ensure the availability of the instruments when needed and to reduce the cost of purchasing the same instruments unnecessarily. Tagging these medical instruments with RFID will enable better tracking of the items, their status and help to determine whether the items need servicing.

Heart Hospital Bayloo Plano implemented automatic tracking and cataloging most expensive medical instruments using RFID. Implementation advantages include streamlining inventory, making it easier for recalls and cutting cost. The hospital uses RFID-enabled storage cabinets to store the expensive medical instruments. When the instruments are brought in or out, the cabinets scan the RFID tag attached to the instruments and record the necessary information. Integration of this information with hospital information system enables an effective inventory management, thus improving operational efficiency [RFID tracks hospital’s devices, 2007].

Proper tracking of medical assets gives medical staff ability to identify, track and locate medical instruments faster and easier. This will help the medical staff to ensure that the right equipment is available for the right procedure in a timely manner. A proper record of physical location of the assets and their actual numbers helps to prevent over-purchasing, under utilising and lost of equipment.

Security of newborn

Other applications of RFID to improve patient safety include the tagging on newborn babies to prevent baby-mother mismatch and increase the security of newborns. Mersey General Hospital, UK, has implemented this approach to increase the security of newborns in the nursery [RFID in Healthcare 2005, 2005]. Signal or alarm will be triggered when a newborn is removed from the nursery without proper procedure. This concept has also been implemented at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California [Crounse,2005].

Human RFID implant.

The issue of human RFID implants has been debated over for many years now, ever since the first reported experiment with an RFID implant was carried out in 1998 by the British scientist Kevin Warwick. As a test, his implant was used to open doors, switch on lights, and cause verbal output within a building. Although there are a handful of people in this world, who are willing to sign up for RFID implants. It can't be helped to wonder why they are willing to do so.

If the RFID implants were to be mandated in a certain country many issues would arise. As the implants are not secured. A third party with a RFID scanner can easily gain access and manipulate private data in the chip. This, without a doubt would make the citizen of the country go ballistic.