Today the world is fighting the emergence of COVID-19; its impact revealing the importance of standardization and traceability in order to effectively monitor people and assets.
Here are some interesting applications we have seen in the market since the first outbreak:
Healthcare
Medical Information History
A system for tracking health information, including vaccination history, in the developing world. The solution includes a necklace, inspired by those worn locally, which compresses, encrypts, and password protects a person’s medical information. The necklace uses RFID technology, as such is employed in retail clothing or athletes’ race bibs and provides health care workers access to a patient’s information like a mother’s pregnancy history, or her child’s growth chart and vaccination history, and also can provide suggestions on what vaccinations and other treatments may be needed.
COVID-19 Patient Tracking Progress
An application to track patients’ progress through their treatments. It uses a scanner to check RFID wristbands, stickers and chips to identify people and objects, and tracks their progress and treatments throughout the hospital. The application can track a range of items and information including patients’ test samples, the various medical teams that treated each patient, which equipment and linens were used per patient and any medical waste generated in their individual treatment.
Patient Registration Process
A patient tracking and data validation application used at remote testing facilities that utilizing a mobile application designed to assist medical professionals with patient data entry, check-in, and completions of a screening questionnaire. It allows healthcare providers to scan a patient’s drivers license through the car window, minimizing patient-to-caregiver contact and increasing throughput speed.
In addition to patient registration, the application has the ability to track the COVID-19 testing process from administration and collection, to transportation and result while also providing printable test tube labels and scannable barcodes that can be used for patient retrieval and data entry. The app also allows healthcare professionals to print QR mobile labels for patients, allowing them to scan and retrieve their own results, and providing subsequent information on what to do in the case of a positive or negative result along with any other pertinent information or communication from the screening facility.
Retail Solutions
Mobile shopping
An app used in physical stores for customers to scan, bag, and pay for their own purchases using their own devices, without need for associate interaction, and now hold even more appeal for customers and employees alike, in this sensitive time. Whether customers scan a code on their phone to confirm payment or use the cashierless, “grab and go” payment model, mobile shopping is truly a technology for current times.
On-Demand Delivery
A wide variety of platforms are now available to enable on-demand delivery for a multitude of products and for those with larger IT budgets, take a look at the feasibility of offering driverless delivery via methods such as self-driving vehicles or autonomous drones (i.e., successful pilot of drone-based prescription delivery).
e-Commerce Return Solutions
An e-commerce returns solution to strengthens distribution centers by utilizing the fast and efficient inbound RFID reading of cartons/boxes to verify against a target list based on the registered returned items from the customer.
The SaaS-enabled solution integrates with all standard RFID hardware and WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) to count, verify, display, track, and manage inventory moving from the DC/DTC to consumer or wholesaler as well as processing all returns back to the DC/DTC. Additional functionality will also allow retailers to use a ‘quality grading’ system and display product imagery to more effectively identify and sort inbound returns.
Transit
Road Travel
In some countries Motorists who may still need to traverse the expressways regularly, are encourage more than ever, to pay toll fees via cashless transactions using RFIDs to eliminate human contact. Medical personal have also been provided with a special RFID to allowed toll-free passage on all major expressways.
Education
School Asset Tracking
School districts are handling the unprecedented task of setting up and managing remote schooling for all students. To facilitate the tracking of laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, etc. and to manage the return of IT asset inventory, some companies are offering their Asset Tracking Software for free.
As the global pandemic progresses and our needs for management and control grow, the movement and traceability of people, biologics, and assets are even more critical and must be more and more detailed. RFID technology is perched as the perfect answer to these growing needs and becomes ubiquitous throughout the world.