A UHF Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) System for Healthcare: Design and Implementation

This paper presents a customized design of a UHF Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system to be installed at the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center (BOCOC) in Cyprus. This is a pilot project that aims at evaluating the effectiveness and overall benefits of UHF RFID technology in the healthcare sector. The purpose of the project is threefold: a) Error-free identification of in-hospital patients through the use of RFID wristbands/cards; b) drug inventory control and monitoring; c) Real Time Location Service (RTLS) capable of locating tagged objects within the premises of the hospital. For the three main pillars of the project, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed in order to run on light-weight medical tablet PCs. The application can access data from a secured central database hosting sensitive information regarding patients, drugs, medical assets, and high-value equipment. The communication between the server and the medical tablet PCs is done over an encrypted wireless local access network.