Medical Design Briefs - September 2022 - 36

like San Diego-based BioFluidica,
which markets instruments for the
isolation and analysis of liquid biopsy
markers. Some of these products already
are in use at the KU Cancer
Center to improve outcomes of cancer
patients in Kansas as well as those
across the U.S.
" I want to congratulate Drs. Soper
and Godwin for the renewal of the
CBM2 P41 grant, " says Dr. Roy Jensen,
director of the KU Cancer Center.
" This funding provides critical
infrastructure support to our research
efforts focused on developing
new and improved detection
systems for biomarkers in cancer
and other diseases. This renewal
will go a long way toward further enhancing
our correlative science capabilities
and places us at the cutting
edge of molecular diagnostics and precision
medicine research. "
The Center of BioModular Multi-Scale Systems for Precision
Medicine takes small plastic chips made of the same material
as a compact disc or DVD, then transforms them into
marvels of engineering and chemistry that quickly can detect
hard-to-diagnose human diseases using saliva, urine, or
blood from a patient. (Credit: CBM2)
For example, CBM2 is working with
KUMC's Dr. Anup Kasi on clinical trials
at the KU Cancer Center to evaluate
new therapeutics for pancreatic cancer,
which accounts for 7 percent of cancer
deaths across the United States. The circulating
tumor cells are secured
from a blood sample using a plastic
microchip pioneered by the CBM2
and marketed by BioFluidica.
Other important research initiatives
include a project with Dr. Alison
Baird of SUNY Downstate Medical
Center in New York City on a test
using small vesicles as markers for a
point-of-care test for diagnosing
ischemic stroke. The test can be
completed in about 30 minutes to
help decide how best to treat patients
with stroke. In another effort,
CBM2 is developing a new nanotechnology
platform for sequencing RNA
and DNA to detect changes to the
RNA genome of viruses that give rise
to variants, such as those associated with
COVID-19.
For more information, visit https://
today.ku.edu. Contact: Brendan M.
Lynch, blynch@ku.edu.
How RFID Can Help Healthcare Maintain an Effective
Working Environment
RFID enables workers to
assign each unique
tracking information to
each asset.
Accutronics, Ltd.
Newcastle-under-Lyme, UK
Forty hours is a lot of time - for most
of us, it's a full working week. Nurses in
healthcare settings, however, spend this
amount of time searching for medical
equipment each month, according to a
NursingTimes survey.1
What's more, in 16
percent of cases, respondents said that
they had given up the search after failing
to find a piece of equipment. With
increasing demands on the sector for a
more streamlined approach to healthcare,
this article explores how radiofrequency
identification (RFID) tagging
can be used to locate assets that
healthcare workers need to do their
jobs more effectively.
The underutilization and loss of medical
assets costs the healthcare sector
millions of dollars each year. Hospitals
that are particularly susceptible are
those with multiple buildings and
36
floors, or that have thousands of assets.
Getting real-time or last-known location
information for these often-critical assets
can considerably improve operational
performance. Used at numerous
medical facilities across the United
States, RFID technology enables workers
to assign each asset with unique
tracking information, which is stored in
a tag attached to the asset and located
using an RFID receiver.
However, there are several different
types of RFID tags and receivers, so
which are the most qualified for the
job? Passive RFID tags are the cheapest
solution, so these are often used to
track lower value assets or discardable
ones, such as blood vials or test tubes.
These tags have no internal power
source, so they are entirely reliant on
energy transmitted from an RFID receiver.
Consisting of an integrated circuit
and an internal antenna, passive
tags are often embedded into adhesive
labels that are quick and easy to attach,
or sometimes into the device itself.
Alternatively, active RFID tags utilize a
battery, which enables them to transmit a
unique ID and location information every
time they pass an RFID receiver or at prewww.medicaldesignbriefs.com
set
intervals. To transmit information, active
RFID tags contain a beacon or transponder,
which is powered by batteries.
Active RFID tags are more expensive than
passive RFID ones, but they can be worth
the cost to ensure more accurate tracking
of higher value items such as medical devices
(e.g., feeding devices and infusion
pumps) or other equipment (e.g., wheelchairs
and beds).
With regard to the battery, size can be a
key consideration. A compact battery can
help to reduce the size of the tag and,
therefore, make it less detectable and
harder to remove from the device. Ultralife's
Thin Cells®
, for example, are discrete
batteries measuring as thin as 1.1
mm. They retain more than 98 percent of
their capacity after one year of storage at
room temperature, meaning they are always
ready to use regardless as to how the
medical devices are stored. This can prove
useful
in
hospitals
where
equipment
could be left anywhere after use.
Finally, there is a type of tag that sits
between active and passive, known as
semipassive RFID, which reflects a small
fraction of the power emitted by an RFID
receiver. Because it does not have an onboard
transmitter, the read range of a
Medical Design Briefs, September 2022
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Medical Design Briefs - September 2022

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