RFID is coming. Make no mistake about it. Wal-Mart is using it. And it’s only a matter of time before RFID begins to impact medicine. Case in point, Dallas’s ProPath Laboratories is partnering with Sybase, Inc. to
start placing an RFID tag on every specimen they receive:
To make their processes both more efficient and more secure, ProPath is now tagging each specimen as it enters the lab with a tiny RFID chip. The chips identify the tissues, announce the specimens’ movements through the laboratory, and provide information about which processes need to be done by querying ProPath’s anatomic information system (AIS) database.
Not to be paranoid, but we guarantee you that some pharmaceutical company is already trying to figure out how to tag your total knee replacement implant with an RFID tag that will allow them to bombard you with Minority Report style ads pushing their latest arthritis drug.
More on Sybase here…
More on ProPath here…