British Telecom is promoting the concept of pervasive healthcare computing to try to persuade drug companies and the NHS to invest in RFID tagging.

The communication company presented a mock-up demonstration of his plans for national networks of electronic health records:

The patient enrolls for an identity card, including an RFID tag and two sets of biometric data – fingerprint and coordinates of eyes and nose.

In the doctor’s waiting room, patients slap their card down on the desk, and are automatically logged in the appointments schedule, which is displayed on a flat screen on the wall.

While waiting, patients can view their electronic health record at a terminal and read educational material aimed at their particular needs.

In the surgery, doctor and patient get access to records and prescribe drugs with their respective ID cards.

In his hospital bed, the patient receives a visit from an “e-trolley” equipped with a display screen showing the prescription, and recording when the tablets are handed over.

The information feeds back to the hospital pharmacy’s stock control system, and in turn to the companies making the drugs.

IT firms have been promoting similar visions for electronic health care for at least a decade. What’s new about the BT mock-up is its emphasis on RFID.

The ultimate step in the process would be RFID tags INSIDE the pills. The Department of Agriculture is already testing swallowable RFID pills to identify livestock, but no one is seriously proposing that humans take them. But a tag containing bio-sensors that could be implanted in the body to monitor people’s health around the clock is under study.

From The Guardian Online.
Related entries: Wi-Fi in a pill, The electronic pedigree of your pills, Medical in-body antennas.