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Calif. Researchers Tag Cadavers, Body Parts
Once the system is installed at the four other labs, the RFID tags will also be used to support an additional process: transferring specimens between facilities. At present, this exchange is conducted through a manual process, in which an item is checked out of the inventory at the facility from which it is sent, noting its destination. When the item arrives at the receiving lab, its receipt is then manually logged in a shared database. Using the SpecimenTrak system, the software will guide employees at both the sending and receiving labs, through a process of reading the RFID tag attached to each loaned specimen, in order to check it in or out of inventory and note its destination.
Schmitt began discussing the idea of using RFID for tracking donations with WINMEC in 2005, she says. After testing a number of different tags and readers, and developing the SpecimenTrak software, the current UCLA pilot program was launched in late 2007.
Schmitt says she knows of some anatomical services labs using bar codes to track specimens, and others that utilize implanted RFID tags, similar to those used for pet-tracking. However, she notes, the tags being used by UCLA—low-frequency tags in a rugged housing, sutured to the specimens—are not employed in other anatomical services applications. What's more, she says, while the UC system has opted not to recollect and reuse its RFID tags, other organizations using the SpecimenTrak solution—which WINMEC is actively marketing—could choose to do so.
In fact, WINMEC's director, Rajit Gadh, says SpecimenTrak was designed so that an end user can select any type of passive RFID tag and reader to use with the SpecimenTrak software. The end user will also be able to decide whether to reuse the tags (assuming they are in packaged in a long-lasting, waterproof housing that can be sterilized for multiple uses).
According to Schmitt, the main benefit that the RFID system provides is improved accuracy of the labs' inventory, based on the fact that ID codes are no longer manually logged. The other benefit, she adds, is time-savings, through faster data collection.
WINMEC hopes that additional anatomical labs will begin using SpecimenTrak, and has a patent pending on the product.
Schmitt began discussing the idea of using RFID for tracking donations with WINMEC in 2005, she says. After testing a number of different tags and readers, and developing the SpecimenTrak software, the current UCLA pilot program was launched in late 2007.
Schmitt says she knows of some anatomical services labs using bar codes to track specimens, and others that utilize implanted RFID tags, similar to those used for pet-tracking. However, she notes, the tags being used by UCLA—low-frequency tags in a rugged housing, sutured to the specimens—are not employed in other anatomical services applications. What's more, she says, while the UC system has opted not to recollect and reuse its RFID tags, other organizations using the SpecimenTrak solution—which WINMEC is actively marketing—could choose to do so.
In fact, WINMEC's director, Rajit Gadh, says SpecimenTrak was designed so that an end user can select any type of passive RFID tag and reader to use with the SpecimenTrak software. The end user will also be able to decide whether to reuse the tags (assuming they are in packaged in a long-lasting, waterproof housing that can be sterilized for multiple uses).
WINMEC hopes that additional anatomical labs will begin using SpecimenTrak, and has a patent pending on the product.
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