NIH Funds RFID Clinical Study at Massachusetts Hospital

Radianse Inc. has received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Washington, for a study of its radio frequency identification technology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The Lawrence, Mass.-based vendor's indoor positioning system uses RFID tags, receivers and Web-based location tracking software to help health care organizations manage medical equipment, patients or staff. As part of the study, the provider organization's surgical patients will wear the vendor's RFID tags. Massachusetts General Hospital clinicians will use the location tracking software to receive identity, location and time data for the patients. The data can be integrated with clinical information systems as well as used to trigger alerts.

The 18-month study will determine the validity of time-stamped location data from the vendor's system to offer real-time data about surgical patients throughout the provider's five buildings. Early results of the study are expected late next year.