13th September 2007

AeroScout a provider of Wi-Fi-based Active RFID solutions, says it is taking part in a digital hospital project at the new General Hospital in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico. Utilizing a Cisco wireless infrastructure, the installation includes AeroScout's Wi-Fi-based Active RFID tags and software to track the location of mobile equipment and patients. The General Hospital of Lagos de Moreno is the first all digital hospital in Mexico and part of a progressive program supported by the Mexican government to create a network of all digital hospitals.

"The Digital Hospital project uses advanced technologies to meet many of the patient care challenges faced in Mexico and Latin America, and asset and patient tracking is a critical component of this new paperless environment," said Carlos Casteneda, CIO of Instituto Mexicano Del Seguro Social (IMSS). "AeroScout's innovative solution allows us to leverage our Wi-Fi infrastructure investment and provide high-value immediate location search results without the need for an expensive and intrusive proprietary RFID infrastructure."

The hospital uses AeroScout's small, long-life Wi-Fi Tags attached to medical equipment such as wheelchairs and other mobile assets, to track its accurate location and status through the Cisco wireless network. The data is then sent to AeroScout's MobileView software, which includes interactive and searchable maps, reporting, event-based alerts, and integration to other hospital IT systems. This ensures that high-value medical equipment can always be found by staff when needed and is used in an efficient manner. In addition to tracking equipment, the hospital is also utilizing the AeroScout solution to track patients as they move through the different medical areas, alerting staff of the current status and position of all the hospital patients in real time.

"AeroScout is proud to be a part of this revolutionary healthcare program that showcases the impact that technology has on the improvement of patient care," said Ricardo C. Berrios, Managing Director, Latin America for AeroScout. "As healthcare institutions across Latin America expand their use of RFID technologies with asset and patient tracking solutions, there is a measurable added value to the overall healthcare system."

Meanwhile VeriChip’s PR department, which is hyperactive at the best of times, has had to turn its attention to dealing with reports that some of the mice, into which its sensors had been implanted during trials, developed tumours. While mice are not men and some claim that it is very easy to give small rodents tumours, given the increasing use of implanted wireless devices - for example in heart monitoring – this could become a serious issue. Perhaps, in retrospect, the hype surrounding implants – much of which was generated by VeriChip – has proved counter productive to say the least.

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