Radio Rx

摘要

Tiny radio-frequency micro-chips are encroaching on the bar code in the hurly-burly of consumer products distribution. Now the ID tags are entering the life-and-death world of health care. Johns Hopkins, the celebrated Baltimore hospital and medical school, will soon become one of the first medical centers to use radio-frequency ID tags to keep track of medicines. The Red Cross is planning to run a pilot test using REID to track blood packets, and several drug-makers are experimenting with REID in distribution and packaging centers. Pharmacy chains, hospitals and HMOs hope to use the technology on boxes of drugs to aid in recalls. And once the chips get cheap enough―and small enough to be ingested―they may one day get embedded in the pills themselves, letting doctors track compliance.