Kyoto, Japan - 10 Apr 2006: Today National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center, Kyoto Council for Information Society, Auto-ID Labs Japan and IBM Japan announced that they have developed and successfully demonstrated a platform to trace medications from drug shipment by a pharmaceutical company to in-hospital application by using RFID tags.
These efforts are part of a project to research and develop technology for advanced use and utilization of RFID, which has been promoted as part of the policy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ Information and Communications Policy Bureau since fiscal 2004. Over the next few years, the project will be verifying technology for management of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. Construction of the platform, the first phase of the project, was carried out between April 2004 and March 2005.
Recently, prevention of medical mishaps occurring as the result of contaminated blood products and similar problems have been recognized as a societal concern, and traceability of pharmaceuticals using RFID tags is garnering attention. If a highly secure and tracing system is introduced into medical-related facilities, all kinds of information, starting with product information, manufacturing processes, and other kinds of data proper to particular products, as well as information on what medical procedure was performed, by whom, on which patient, under what authorization, etc., can be monitored using the RFID tags. This expands the possibilities for preventing or minimizing medical mishaps. Under the current project the focus is on the flow of pharmaceuticals from delivery to the Kyoto Medical Center to their administration to patients by doctors or nurses.
At the Kyoto Medical Center, under the new project, RFID tags were attached to dummy samples of plasma derivatives (about 50 units) and successfully traced. Using these RFID tags, information on the distribution and use history of the products ––from the pharmaceutical manufacturer via the wholesalers to the medical institutions through to use––can be shared (federated), and the basis for a tracking mechanism can be established. In the future, multiple users, beyond the boundaries of individual industries, can make use of this kind of historical information to provide a system for enabling safe medical care.
IBM Japan has built a distributed information system for seamless operation of RFID tags, while protecting a variety of highly classified medical information, such as personal information. Moreover, from the point of view of privacy, it has become possible to provide access control technology, which strictly limits access to the database and displays only the information necessary for the business at hand in systems used by multiple businesses or departments.
Establishment of the platform will make it possible to digitalize and store various basic clinical data related to treatment of patients. It is anticipated that the data will contribute to the establishment of treatment methods based on clinical data, called Evidence-Based Medicine (EMB), the latest cutting-edge endeavor in the medical world. The data may also be useful for investigating side-effects and other facts concerning new drugs on the market, and in confirming histories of use of medical equipment and supplies such as heart catheters and pacemakers.
The Kyoto Medical Center, the Kyoto Council for Information Society, Auto-ID Labs Japan, and IBM Japan will continue collaboration with related medical facilities and industrial organizations, and they are planning to promote further efforts toward practical utilization of traceability of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals using RFID tags.
Contact(s) information
June Namioka
IBM Media Relations
81-3-5572-2722
june@jp.ibm.com
| Topics | XML feeds |
|---|---|
| Services and solutions |
1 * Plasma derivatives are maintained under strict supervision by pharmaceutical companies and medical institutions, so dummy samples were used to conduct verification tests this time. With the revision of the Pharmaceuticals Affairs Law, as part of the efforts to strengthen measures for the safety of biologically derived products, pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and medical institutions are now required to preserve and control records of drug names, specifications, lot numbers, etc. (including preservation period). Plasma derivatives were chosen as representative of these biologically derived products. Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation extended cooperation with respect to these plasma derivative samples