RFID-enabled Web Portal to Empower Patients in Health Sector

摘要

Healthcare providers are currently facing one of the most important challenges in managing patients' medical records and diagnostic results including test results in their health facilities. These conditions impose additional demands on the health provider's information processing capabilities, as traditional performance measurement and management control systems are insufficient for achieving multiple objectives. As a consequence, health providers need to adopt sophisticated and comprehensive management information systems, such as an integrated service, to achieve their strategic goals. Also, there is a need to find ways to limit the number of patients coming to the hospital, improve the flow of patient information within the healthcare system and then provide care for patients when they leave the hospital. This research demonstrates the use of emerging Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to reduce health care costs. It also facilitates the automating and streamlining of healthcare management process (e.g., identify and locate patient) in health facilities (such as hospitals, home health monitoring, physician's offices, elderly care facilities, fitness centres and health research studies). The use of a web Portal (or dashboard) can also be employed not only for reducing health costs but also to empower patients to view their latest medical information (e.g. clinical tests, pathology and radiology results, discharge summaries, prescription renewals, referrals, appointments) in real-time and carry out physician messaging to enhance the information exchanged, managed and shared in the Australian healthcare sector. Based on the above analysis, the research outlines the design and development of real-time RFID-enabled Web Portal (RWP) to limit patients coming to hospitals.