RFID Patient Wristbands Safe for CT and MRI

Radio frequency identification device (RFID) technology is increasingly being adopted by hospitals to track various assets, including everything from blood bags to surgical sponges. We already reported on its use in tracking patients back in 2005. Now a team of researchers from Switzerland has confirmed the safety of RFID chips used in patient wristbands while being scanned by MRI and CT machines. In the worst case scenario MRI examinations at 3 Tesla lasting up to two hours, the temperature of the tissue directly next to the RFID tag was raised by at most 4 degrees Celsius. The wristband did result in some minor distortions on the resulting MRI images in the immediate area of the tag. There was no effect on CT image quality. The tags remained functioning properly after all scans without any data loss.
More at: RFID Journal…
Study article: Safety and reliability of Radio Frequency Identification Device in Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computed Tomography