13th December 2006 - RFID Technologies In Industry
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RFID Technologies In Industry
According to University of Texas researchers, RFID technologies have already added $40 billion in benefits to the retail and health-care sectors.
RFID technology has the potential to create billions of dollars in benefits to the retail and health-care sectors, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. The findings of the study, commissioned by NXP Semiconductors, were released earlier this month.
For providers of health-care and pharmaceutical products, the researchers expect the benefits to come from reducing drug counterfeit and shrinkage, hastening time-to-market, and improving the product recall and sample-management processes, inventory turnover and clinical trials. Hospitals, the study predicts, will gain value from RFID by improving equipment tracking and asset utilization, increasing access to health care and providing better patient safety and care.
The estimated economic gains, the researchers say, are perhaps the most surprising finding of the study. Using current adoption levels of RFID within the health-care sector, which includes manufacturers, distributors and hospitals, the study values the benefits at $27.95 billion. Even without accounting for the monetary value of human life, it estimates improved patient care from RFID deployment to be $34.67 billion at current adoption levels. That includes savings resulting from such implementations as using RFID-tagged syringes to dispense the correct dosages of medicine, and extending the usable life of RFID-tagged surgical tools by ensuring that they're properly sanitized. As RFID adoption rates grow in the health-care sector, so too will the financial returns.
"When you start talking about billions and billions of dollars," says Reynaerts, "it's the size of those numbers that is most impressive."
The complete study, entitled "Assessing the Financial Impacts of RFID Technologies on the Retail and Healthcare Sectors," is available online for downloading.