The use of RFID in healthcare has increased significantly, whether it is for patient care, inventory, medical devices, medicines or other needs. A key benefit includes the ability to trace items or medicines from manufacture to use by the patient.

The recently announced collaboration between Identiv and Novanta offers a good idea of how RFID is making inroads in healthcare. Identiv specializes in RFID-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, while Novanta Inc. focuses on the medical device and life sciences markets.

“This collaboration with Novanta will facilitate the adoption of RFID technology in critical medical device applications,” said Kirsten Newquist, CEO at Identiv, in announcing the partnership. “By collaborating with Novanta to integrate our leading-edge RFID devices with their trusted reader technology, we are enabling innovative manufacturers to incorporate intelligence and performance, ensuring patient safety.”

“Partnering with Identiv furthers our mission to offer innovative application-specific solutions to our customers,” said Lina Li, president of precision medicine at Novanta. “The Identiv relationship will support our connected care and medication management customers with real-time monitoring of key patient vitals like temperature, wetness, and patient motion as well as medication compliance and patient linen tracking. This is a game changer for patient safety and hospital compliance.”

The plan is to combine Identiv’s RFID inlays, tags, and labels with Novanta’s ThingMagic reader modules and APIs for smart medical devices, advanced diagnostics, and wearable devices. The partners see this as providing access, identification and traceability with better performance at a better price. The two companies are marketing and selling products today.

“As medical technology continues to advance, Identiv and Novanta aim to provide medical device manufacturers with access to the most advanced, integrated solutions available,” said Deepak Prakash, VP, healthcare at Identiv. “By providing medical device OEMs with streamlined intelligent, RFID-enabled technology, the partnership fills a significant gap for medical device manufacturers – offering solutions for authentication, identification, and traceability.”

Prakash observed that RFID offers advantages that other technologies can’t provide.

“Healthcare systems, including medical device manufacturers and their suppliers, are faced with a number of challenges, including demands to improve safety, increase efficiency and reduce costs – all while complying with stringent safety regulations. Incorporating smart RFID technology into medical devices and diagnostic test equipment ensures proper assembly and use,” Prakash said.

The technology will be used by Novanta’s clients to ensure proper selection, assembly, and use of medical device and diagnostic test equipment consumables. There are more possibilities ahead.

“Future uses applications in connected care and medication management – providing real-time monitoring of key patient vitals like temperature, wetness, and patient motion,” Prakash added. “RFID technology will also be used for patient linen tracking and medication compliance.”