PRWEB: Newtown, PA (PRWEB) November 18, 2009 -- CenTrak, a leading provider of Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) for tracking equipment, patients and staff indoors, today announced the release of its new AlerTrak active RFID alarm for hospitals and healthcare facilities. The device notifies hospital personnel via an audible alert if specified people or assets leave or enter a restricted area, providing a valuable new tool for reducing infection spread, patient wandering, and inventory loss.

"A challenge for many hospitals is retention - keeping people and assets where they are supposed to be at all times," said Ari Naim, Ph.D., president and CEO of CenTrak. "AlerTrak actively helps healthcare organizations achieve this goal. For example, the device can be used to create local audible alerts if a quarantined patient leaves a designated area and hospital personnel can be notified immediately to correct the situation. This is especially important right now as the world faces a growing flu pandemic."

Originally developed for patient tag loss prevention, the IT-150 AlerTrak device triggers alerts when hospital-designated tags come within a pre-defined zone. It can be placed at egress and ingress points, or other critical locations. The device can be configured to generate quick audible alerts that can be leveraged by CenTrak solution provider partners.

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RFID Journal: Nov. 23, 2009—RFID Journal has announced that it is now accepting submissions for the 2010 RFID Journal Awards, which recognize companies that have distinguished themselves by their successful use of RFID technology. The winners will be announced at RFID Journal LIVE! 2010, the company's eighth annual conference and exhibition, which will be held on Apr. 14-16, at the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, Fla.

The deadline for all submissions is Jan. 29, 2010. The awards will be given in five categories:

Best RFID Implementation: This award will be given to an end-user company utilizing RFID to improve its manufacturing, supply chain or retail operations. The winner will be the company that best demonstrates how radio frequency identification delivers real value to shareholders.

Best Use of RFID to Enhance a Product or Service: This award will be given to an end-user company that has employed RFID technology to enhance an existing product or service. The winner will be the firm that best demonstrates how it uses RFID to provide additional value to its customers.

Most Innovative Use of RFID: This award will be given to the end-user company with the most novel use of RFID technology to solve a business problem, deliver a return on investment to shareholders or improve customer service.

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PRWEB: Bothell, WA (PRWEB) November 18, 2009 -- One of the many advantages of Sonitor's recently released High Definition Receiver technology is its capability of creating several unique location zones within the same room. It also offers a very simple and non-intrusive five minute per location installation, which includes any required location accuracy fine-tuning for multiple unique locations, such as patient-bed(s), hand sanitation station(s), computers etc., inside the same room.

Sonitor's unique and proven location accuracy performance enables many sub-room location specific RTLS applications beyond asset, patient and workflow visualization that are out of reach by other RTLS or RFID technologies. These applications drive additional ROI through the enabling of automatic alerts or reports related to events such as:
* Caregiver hand-washing compliance. Caregivers will be motivated to sanitize their hands before and after seeing a patient at the bed-side when they know that non-compliance with this rule always will be detected.
* Patient room or bed-side nurse call request cancellation.
* Patient fall-detection. If a patient falls e.g. near their bed or in the bathroom, nearby caregivers can automatically be alerted.
* Contagious disease contact tracking. Outbreak containment is made possible by identifying who or what have been in contact with a contaminated object and at what time.
* Caregiver computer log-on and log-off. The computer log-on process can be accelerated as it will automatically start by the presence an authorized caregiver. Automatic HIPPA compliance is ensured by automatically logging the caregiver off from the computer when he/she steps back from the computer (screen).
* Time-stamped and location specific recording of interaction events in the patient care process, such as patient/caregiver or patient/equipment.

"Location accuracy performance is the hallmark of Sonitor's RTLS technology leadership", said Terje "Terry" Aasen, Sonitor Technologies, Inc's CEO. "Combining the High Definition Receiver technology with plug & play installation simplicity, no risk of electromagnetic interference with other electronic equipment, and no LAN bandwidth burden, the Sonitor RTLS technology enables a truly exceptional and very cost-efficient RTLS experience ", Mr. Aasen continued.

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Marketwire: SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire - November 16, 2009) - Awarepoint (www.awarepoint.com) today announced its Real-time Awareness Solution (RTAS) (www.awarepoint.com/solutions.html) at the University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC).

Awarepoint provides a ZigBee-based (www.zigbee.org) real-time awareness and condition sensing network, including real-time location (RTLS) applications and all hardware, software, installation and maintenance. When initially deployed, 1,000 medical equipment items were tagged, including IV pumps, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps, telemetry transmitters, continuous positive air pressure machines (CPAPs), and more. In October 2009, UTMC extended its relationship with Awarepoint to a new three year contract adding 1,500 additional asset tags (www.awarepoint.com/tags.html), including approximately 50 temperature monitoring tags.

Not long ago, a misplaced piece of medical equipment could be the catalyst for a major search. "In a hospital setting, sometimes it's a challenge to find certain mobile pieces of equipment," said Steve Hanenkrath, manager of technology support on Health Science Campus. "There were times my IT staff and staff from central services would lose a few hours of the workday just looking for IV pumps."

The Awarepoint Real-time Awareness Solution applies wireless technology to locate tagged hospital equipment enterprise-wide. Sensors that have been plugged into wall outlets throughout UTMC form a wireless network that pinpoints tagged equipment and transmits its location to an internet site. "The equipment tags talk to the wall sensors," Hanenkrath explained. "The sensors then talk to a router that transmits a message to an asset tracking management Web site."

The result is a system that can track a single piece of equipment to a room and to within three feet of its real-time location anywhere in the enterprise. Pat Nopper, UTMC manager of distribution services, uses the enterprise tracking system every day. "This allows me to make sure patients get the equipment they need as soon as possible," she said. "I can find things immediately from my desk. For instance, we have one piece of equipment we use for bariatric patients. Right away, we know what floor it's on and what room it's in from my desk, instead of searching on foot."

Moving beyond the initial "search and locate" phase of the system, UTMC has worked with Awarepoint's Client Services Team to apply business intelligence rules that provide proactive management of resources. Equipment, Nopper noted, no longer comes back to her department. Instead, it is re-distributed from its last location for more efficiency. The system also has the capability to alert hospital staff when a tagged item moves to a certain point beyond UTMC's perimeter.

Awarepoint's Real-time Awareness Solution aims to streamline clinical processes by having the right resources at staff's fingertips when needed, reduce patients' wait times, more efficiently manage preventive maintenance and recall notices on medical equipment and help UTMC save money.

"Each client is uniquely different but our management strategies are scalable to meet those differences," said Tammy Moore, Vice President of Client Services. Awarepoint account managers continually drive best practices to maximize the value of each client's enterprise awareness infrastructure. "Success is measured by ROI outcomes and through deployment strategies, usage goals, growth and overall client satisfaction."

"The real test of any company's value and customer service comes in having satisfied customers extend and broaden their relationship," said Awarepoint's CEO, Jason Howe. "We look forward to continuing this mutually beneficial relationship for many years."

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theRTLSBlog.com: University Research Concludes Real Time Location Systems Can Transform Hospitals Indiana and Purdue University Research Reveals Cost Savings, Operational Efficiency, Improved Patient Care and Higher Staff Morale

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. and MORRISVILLE, N.C. (November 17, 2009) – Results from the first multidisciplinary university study examining the impact of a Real Time Location System (RTLS) deployed throughout a hospital show that the technology for tracking mobile medical equipment is driving increased operational efficiency and saving hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, while also enabling nurses to spend more time with patients and improve staff morale.

A thorough evaluation of the impact of implementing the RadarFind RTLS at Southeastern Regional Medical Center (SRMC) in Lumberton, N.C. analyzed the system’s influence on the management of equipment support, nursing and patient care, as well as hospital finances. The study results, soon to be published in the Journal of Clinical Engineering, revealed that the technology allowed staff to reduce time spent searching for tagged equipment by 96 percent, saved the hospital $750,000 in indirect costs, and illuminated potential future benefits as the new technology is further integrated into the hospital’s operations and culture.

“The level of data generated by these systems has the potential to profoundly change the management of technology and the delivery of patient care,” said Barbara Christe, the lead researcher for the study team and associate professor and program director of Biomedical Engineering Technology at the joint research campus Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. In 2008, Christe, her colleagues and students received the 2008 Outstanding Management & Technology Paper award from the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) for their research on adapting radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to a clinical application.

The research team also included a professor of electrical and computer engineering technology and an associate professor of accounting from the business school. “Southeastern Regional Medical Center is a model for how a clear, cooperative, synergistic relationship between hospital administrators and various clinical staff departments can support the success of a real time location system in meeting stated objectives,” said Christe.

Leveraging real-time data to make hospitals more efficient and improve patient care

SRMC estimates that nurses spent at least one hour per day searching for equipment, resulting in an hour saved for locating tagged equipment since the RadarFind system was installed. On an annual basis for the 120 nurses working at the hospital, the annual indirect savings is $750,000, and nurses are able to spend more time with patients.

Additional savings may be realized from reducing capital expenditures based on using equipment utilization data gathered by the system. During the study, RadarFind representatives demonstrated that utilization data could support a smaller amount of infusion pumps than the hospital was planning to purchase. Wayne Memorial Hospital in Goldsboro, N.C. (not part of this study)deployed RadarFind in 2006 and was able to reduce a planned infusion pump purchase by 20 percent in less than one year after installation from evaluating the utilization data. This resulted in a capital purchase savings of $276,000 and annual operating cost savings of $27,000.

In surveys and interviews, clinical engineering staff reported that the time spent searching for tagged equipment has been reduced from 4 hours a day to less than 10 minutes. In addition, preventive maintenance compliance rates for tagged equipment have improved from 90 percent monthly to a consistent 100 percent. Nursing staff are also reporting greatly improved hospital efficiency as they are now able to locate previously “hidden” equipment, and reported job satisfaction has risen accordingly.

“As a former nurse I understand the frustration experienced by nursing staff when they must search for equipment,” said Joanne Anderson, president and chief executive officer of SRMC. “This technology supports our nurses and enables them to spend more time caring for patients, ensuring that our patients receive the utmost quality of care and benefitting hospital staff morale.”

RadarFind is the only RTLS to feature a three-state, color-coded status switch on tags to mark equipment as available (green), in-use (yellow) or needs cleaning/decontamination (red). This can be a powerful tool when leveraged as part of a hospital’s infection control procedures. For example, a piece of equipment with a “dirty” status tag may be identified if it is mistakenly placed in a clean storage room. In addition, by analyzing the time-stamped location history of a piece of equipment or patient, data gathered by the RTLS can be used to track an infection in a hospital. Causal relationships between contaminated medical devices and infected patients can also be easily determined.

Wide-ranging potential for future impact

The study identified initiatives that could increase the benefits of RTLS, ranging from eliminating the need for an annual physical inventory to referencing the history of equipment used in each patient room to ensure accuracy when billing a patient or insurance company. Other suggestions included analyzing data to determine where a piece of equipment is most likely to be used in order to develop a better storage plan for those items. An RTLS will undoubtedly help reduce equipment loss due to misplacement or theft.

RadarFind, the only RTLS designed by former doctors and hospital administrators to meet the unique requirements for tracking mobile medical equipment and people in hospitals, was recently acquired by TeleTracking Technologies, Inc., the market leader in patient flow automation. Together, the companies will continue to improve hospital operations by linking information gathered through wireless sensor networks, RTLS and intelligent software to hospital procedures thereby reducing waste and driving more efficient processes for patient care.

“The transformational results attainable by implementing our suite of automated tracking solutions for hospitals are influencing process changes throughout the facility, as evidenced by this study,” said Michael Nelson, president of RadarFind. “The combination of technologies from RadarFind and TeleTracking offers hospitals the most comprehensive answer to the need for tracking and accountability, and reducing unnecessary costs while improving efficiencies and overall patient care.”

About RadarFind

RadarFind’s Real Time Location System uses an innovative wireless sensor network platform for tracking medical equipment and patients that is highly accurate, yet nondisruptive to hospital operations. RadarFind Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TeleTracking Technologies, Inc., a leader in patient flow automation solutions with more than 800 hospital clients in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. For more information, please visit www.teletracking.com or www.radarfind.com.

About IUPUI

Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis is Indiana's premier urban university, with 20 schools and academic units which grant degrees in more than 200 programs from both Indiana University and Purdue University. For more information, please visit www.iupui.edu.

About Southeastern Regional Medical Center

Southeastern Regional Medical Center is the hub of a comprehensive health care system in southeastern North Carolina. The not-for-profit, fully-accredited medical center offers the Southeastern Heart Center, managed by Duke University Health System, birthing suites and a combination of acute care, intensive care and psychiatric services to over 13,000 inpatients and 75,000 outpatients annually. For more information, please visit www.srmc.org.

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newswire today: NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Stamford, CT, United States, 11/12/2009 - Dr. Nissim Ozer has been named to the Board of Advisors at Precyse Technologies, Inc., leaders of asset networks and supply chain visibility solutions.

Precyse Technologies, a leading real time asset visibility solutions provider from Stamford Connecticut, today announced that Dr. Nissim Ozer, former CTO and EVP at RF Code, an RFID solutions business, and an industry veteran, has joined the company's Advisory Board.

Dr. Ozer’s track record in the industry spans more than two decades, with a proven track record of leading technology companies to innovative and award-winning products. He offers comprehensive technological knowledge along with an excellent ability to manage and drive early stage companies. From 2000 to 2007, Dr. Ozer served as CTO and EVP at RF Code, an Active RFID and RTLS solutions business. There, he was instrumental to raising venture capital financing and delivering premier RFID hardware and software products to market. He was responsible for managing all aspects of product strategy, IP, development, execution and IT operations. Dr. Ozer also developed the company's cutting-edge algorithms for real-time RF signal mapping.

"We are delighted to add another outstanding business leader with broad and relevant experience to our Advisory Board," said John Stopper, CEO of Precyse. "Dr. Ozer is a veteran executive in the RFID and Auto-ID industry with considerable experience that will help foster our long-term growth and success as we continue to expand our customer base and product offering"

Dr. Ozer serves on various advisory boards. Previously, he served as the chair of the 5-M Software/Middleware Work Group within the AIM Global RFID Experts Group, the largest RFID industry organization for automatic asset identification, mobility and data capture. Dr. Ozer's achievements were recognized by Supply Demand Chain magazine, a leading Auto-ID periodical, which selected him as the “Pro to Know” for three years in a row (2005, 2006, and 2007).

"This is an exciting and transformative time in the industry and Precyse Technologies is clearly one of the most innovative product companies in the world today," said Dr. Ozer. "With the US economy emerging out of recent sl owdown, I feel privileged to join a dynamic team of renowned industry leaders. I look forward to participating in the growth of Precyse as it helps guide the future of the active RFID and RTLS industry into unified asset network solutions and the enabling of an internet of intelligent, connected assets”.

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RFID Journal: The RFID systems integrator and solutions provider will continue to operate independently, but will receive an infusion of cash from Pharos Capital Group.

By Mark Roberti
Nov. 16, 2009—Rush Tracking Systems, an RFID systems integrator and solutions provider based in Lenexa, Kan., has been acquired by Pharos Capital Group, an investment firm with offices in Nashville, Tenn., and Dallas, Texas. The terms of the acquisition have not yet been disclosed, though both companies indicate Rush Tracking Systems will continue operating independently, and that it will receive an infusion of new capital.
"We were not looking to be acquired," says Toby Rush, president of Rush Tracking. "Pharos was interested in investing in the RFID space, and they found us. They were attracted by the fact that we are an established company in the space, with a proven leadership team and proven technology."
Rush Tracking Systems, cofounded by Rush in 2003, has built a solid reputation in the market as a company that understands the role of active and passive RFID systems, as well as bar codes and related technologies.
Recently, Rush Tracking Systems developed a packaged offering, known as VisibleEdge, that involves RFID-enabled forklifts and is designed to allow companies to manage workflows. In May 2009, the firm announced it was integrating optical real-time location system (RTLS) technology from Sky-Trax into its VisibleEdge solution. To determine a forklift's location, a Sky-Trax optical sensor, mounted on the vehicle, could be aimed at the ceiling in order to capture digital images of overhead position markers resembling 2-D bar codes.

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The Providence Journal:
By Bruce Landis

Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Governor Carcieri has vetoed legislation that would have limited the use of electronic devices that track people as well as objects such as motor vehicles, something privacy advocates here and across the country are concerned about.
Called radio frequency identification devices, and often referred to as “tags,” they use radio signals that link the person or object tracked to a computer system. They have become controversial in Rhode Island when local school officials considered using them to track students, and they have also attracted attention because they are essential to the state’s electronic toll-collection system, E-ZPass.
The governor vetoed two bills that would have banned the use of RFID tags to track students and would have required police and other law enforcement agencies to get court orders before they could get access to toll data, similar to the requirements for other searches and seizures. (The data would have remained available without a court order for toll enforcement.)
The governor’s veto messages to the General Assembly, made public Tuesday, objected to preventing local officials from using the tags to keep track of students. He cited a number of circumstances where he said the tags could be useful, such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks or even for routine events such as field trips.
A sponsor of one of the bills and the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped develop and supported the legislation, criticized the vetoes.
Sen. Frank A. Ciccone III, D-Providence, the sponsor of one of the bills, said the devices suggest “ ‘big brother’ watching over everyone.”
Amy Vitale, the ACLU’s program coordinator, said the devices “put information in the hands of people who can use it for nefarious purposes” that have nothing to do with its intended purposes.
“We don’t think the schools should be in charge of an RFID program,” she said. “This is not something that government should be involved in any way.”
Ciccone said he has worked for years on similar bills that Carcieri vetoed, continually amending the legislation to address the governor’s objections in past messages and to accommodate interested groups such as special-education programs.
As for tracking students, he said, “If the parent wants it, the bill allows it.”
Ciccone also questioned whether the student-tracking system would be practical. For instance, he said, putting RFID chips in students’ backpacks would often end up tracking the backpacks, not the students.
The veto messages did not address the related issue of data being collected through systems such as E-ZPass.

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Earth Times: HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - (Business Wire) Time Domain Corporation, the leader in ultra wideband (UWB) real-time location systems (RTLS), today announced the deployment of its Precision Location Ultra Wideband System (PLUS®) in Europe. Time Domain and its partner PinPoint Data Systems, an RTLS integrator and provider of marketing data and reports to retailers and consumer package goods manufacturers, have shipped PLUS to multiple retail locations in the United Kingdom. The system provides the most precise and real-time data available indoors on the global market today allowing European retail, manufacturing and healthcare customers to improve operational efficiency and increase sales.

“The success of pilot programs deployed in Europe earlier this year led to full shipments of PLUS just months later,” said Greg Clawson, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Time Domain. “Time Domain’s global footprint continues to expand throughout the world with major installations in Europe, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Brazil that are building upon our success in the United States. Companies that have busy work environments ranging from retail stores to factories are deploying our PLUS technology to provide the most precise location data available, improving overall efficiency.”

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Business Wire: ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RF Controls, LLC, creators of the standards-based Intelligent Tracking and Control System (ITCS®), which provides real-time location of items that have been tagged with inexpensive passive UHF RFID tags, today announced a further breakthrough in system performance.

Using advanced, patent pending signal processing algorithms, a single ITCS Signal Acquisition and Source Location (SASL®) “smart antenna” can now accurately determine the ranges of all tags it can read, to an individual accuracy of 1’ (30cm). Ranging accuracy is consistent across the full operating range of a SASL. This significant innovation means that each SASL can now accurately locate tagged items in 3D, which in turn means that ITCS provides even higher integrity tag location data. ITCS’ unique capabilities provide end-users with valuable real-time data to address latent business process issues and improve operating efficiency.

In RW Baird’s “Supply Chain Technology – RFID Monthly”, industry analyst Reik Read provided an objective narrative on ITCS, concluding “We view the ability to scan specific zones as a key attribute that can help locate missing items, provide real-time out of stock information, improve pick processes and can aid in inventory transfers, all in real-time.”

RFID Journal Magazine heralded “beam-steerable phased-array antennas” as a top 10 technology to watch during 2009. ITCS Bidirectional Electronically Steerable Phased Array (BESPA™) antenna technology achieves exceptionally long operating range and has transformed the market’s expectations of the capabilities of passive UHF RFID systems.

ITCS’ unique and powerful combination of features gives end-users the ability to automatically identify, locate and track tagged items on a zonal basis; ITCS eliminates the need for restrictive, nodal data capture points such as portals. Tagged items may be arbitrarily situated within the area or volume being monitored. Simply tag items of interest with standards compliant (ISO 180006-C / EPCglobal UHF Gen2) passive UHF RFID tags, deploy ITCS to “light up” the environment in which those tagged items are present, and you get accurate, real-time location of all those tagged items, enabling efficient, automated inventory and asset management.

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