27th February 2008

InfoLogix, a technology provider of enterprise mobility solutions for the healthcare and commercial industries, announced today that it will launch SurgiChip –– a real-time wireless solution designed to address causes of surgical identity and procedure mistakes in hospitals, at the 2008 HIMSS annual conference and exhibition.

SurgiChip is a complete verification system using RFID technology in an automated, controlled process to accurately identify and document that a surgical team performs the proper procedure on the correct patient at the right surgical site prior to the start of a procedure. Designed to directly address patient safety goals, SurgiChip provides an electronic audit trail to verify compliance with the Joint Commission’s Universal Protocol and is HIPAA compliant, using advanced encryption algorithms to secure patient data at all times.

“The repercussions from surgical identity errors are serious for both the patient and healthcare institution,” says David Gulian, President and CEO of InfoLogix. “In Pennsylvania alone, more than 170 ‘wrong site’ surgical errors and 250 ‘close calls’ were documented over a recent 30 months period. In New York, a patient who had surgery on the incorrect knee recently settled with the hospital which committed the error for $450,000, and in Rhode Island, a hospital was fined $50,000 for a ‘wrong site’ surgery. With SurgiChip we are aiming to empower hospitals with a real-time system that helps eliminate patient identity errors such as these.”

SurgiChip provides electronic verification of comprehensive patient, surgical site and procedural data both in pre-op and in the operating room. As part of InfoLogix’s enterprise mobility software suite for the healthcare industry, SurgiChip offers real time connectivity utilizing existing WLAN infrastructure to bridge the communication gap with all members of the surgical team.

Meanwhile Ascom, a developer of on-site wireless communications solutions and InfoLogix are collaborating to make hospital asset and personnel tracking data available directly on clinicians’ wireless handsets, through a new integrated Location Based Service (LBS) platform.

Developed to improve the utilization of key assets and personnel, this solution takes the InfoLogix’s RFID asset and patient tracking solution, including advanced wireless applications that utilize an 802.11 WLAN network, active RFID tags and middleware to provide specific location information for things and people, and combines it with Ascom’s on-site wireless technology and UNITE Professional Messaging Suite to deliver information directly to a clinician’s wireless handset. The combined solution gives clinicians immediate access to integrated voice and data to locate the nearest resource at all times—for example a defibrillator, infusion pump, anesthesiologist or security officer.

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