A wristband designed by a London-based design graduate could see hospital patients being tagged to ensure they are given the right medication. The band has a chip, two tiny LCD screens and sensor technology.
The chip stores data about the patient and their medication requirements, including the type of medication and the correct dose. The wristband communicates with another chip on the medicine packaging using sensor technology. Information about whether the correct dose and drug is being administered appears on the wristband screens, and alerts the nurse or doctor if there is an error.Once the patient is discharged from hospital, the information can be uploaded to a central database. The data is wiped from the wristband and can be fitted to a new patient.
The wristband is held to be a really practical use of electronic-tagging in medical equipment design and promises for an extra level of security to both staff and patients, ensuring that the correct drug is being administered at the correct time.
Medication errors, equipment defects and patient accidents are one of the most common medical mistakes and could be responsible for hundreds of deaths a year. Drug errors can occur if medicines have similar packaging, handwriting on the hospital drugs chart is illegible or the wrong patient is identified and given the incorrect drugs.
The new system, if adopted by hospitals in the future, could prevent these situations and reduce the chances of human error.
Source: Google health news
