InfoLogix Regenerates SurgiChip

InfoLogix acquired SurgiChip when it purchased the health-care mobility services and RFID business of AMTSystems, a maker of RFID, bar-code and other automatic-identification technologies for a variety of sectors (see InfoLogix Ramps Up Its RFID Offerings With Acquisition). In the year since, Gulian says, InfoLogix has revamped and enhanced the SurgiChip system. Improvements include the addition of wireless capabilities to the handheld interrogators so data collection can be accomplished in real time.

"The change enabled real-time data exchange, allowing users to capture information at the point of care," Gulian says. Based on its extensive experience working with caregivers in hospital settings, he adds, InfoLogix moved away from PDA-style devices for the SurgiChip solution because "clinicians told us the form factor was too small." In addition to the changes in form factor and wireless capability, InfoLogix also reengineered the back-end software to give SurgiChip better processing power.

David Gulian

"SurgiChip was a key innovation that made AMTSystems an attractive acquisition target for InfoLogix," Gulian states. "AMTSystems did not have the resources to take this innovative product to market successfully—simply put, they just didn't have the necessary marketing budget, staff or name recognition."

According to Gulian, InfoLogix will now try to leverage its existing clients, more than 1,400 of which are health-care customers, as potential users of SurgiChip—users Gulian says "could potentially benefit from the SurgiChip solution." What's more, he adds, the mobile solutions provider has more in the way of marketing resources and technology expertise in wireless, and specifically in hospitals. "InfoLogix also offers support of RFID solutions for asset management, medication management, patient identification and more: a full spectrum of RFID from the entry in the hospital to the bedside—and, with SurgiChip, now to the point of procedure."

The SurgiChip solution costs about $50,000 with maintenance support, and the RFID-enabled labels are about 15 to 20 cents apiece. "But this is not a cost scenario—this is a value scenario," Gulian says. "One wrong surgery, and that might cost a hospital $1 million." The Palm Beach Orthopedic Institution continues to use the SurgiChip solution, he notes, and up to six potential pilot sites are scheduled to launch in the next quarter.

InfoLogix isn't the only company offering an RFID-enabled system designed to prevent surgical errors. Aionex has been working with Huntsville Hospital in Alabama, which is using Aionex's RFID-enabled software to monitor caregivers as well as patients. Like the SurgiChip system, this solution includes RFID-enabled stickers embedded with passive 13.56 MHz RFID tags that are applied to patients before surgery (see RFID Documents Surgery at Huntsville Hospital).