Singapore: The National Healthcare Group (NHG) in Singapore is deploying smart pharmaceutical tracking and management system to help its employees keep track of pharmaceuticals and ensure proper administration of drugs to patients.<!--more-->

The Intelligent Medicine Dispensing System (i-MDS), which runs on a customised software developed by TCM RFiD, will be deployed initially on more than 300 Motorola MC50 and MC70 enterprise digital assistants (EDA) at two NHG hospitals.

NHG expects the system to become operational by the second quarter of 2008.

Equipped with security functions to ensure that the transmitted data is fully encrypted and secured, the medicine dispensing system uses Motorola's EDAs linked to backend electronic medical records via wireless technology and Wi-Fi networks.

The technology help NHG Hospital employees use the EDAs to scan both RFID-enabled and bar-coded wristbands that are unique to each patient.

This, according to the sources, will not only help double-check prescription dosages and pull up patient records, it also enables them enter new information such as changes in prescriptions or patients' allergies, which are transmitted in real-time to a central database accessible only to qualified healthcare staff.

"The system is set up to ensure that all the right procedures are being followed when it comes to the administering of drugs to patients—the right drug, right dosage to the right patient at the right time and by the right method," TCM RFiD MD Michael Oh said.
 
The company is also putting in place a multiple tracking system that would help it receive real-time information on any delay in transmission of information on the system.

Giving further details, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Business' Healthcare Director Jeff Schou said that mobile devices, coupled with proliferating wireless local area networks (WLANs) in hospitals, are proving a potent mix for increasing caregiver productivity and reducing medical errors.

Schou added that by hospitals and healthcare centres can combine handheld mobile computing, WLAN, RFID, barcode technologies and leading clinical IT and medical device applications, to help physicians, nurses and pharmacies obtain the information they need, so that patients can receive the right treatment at the right time.
 
Oh said the system would also help to improve hospital workflow management by cutting down the need to look for paper files, and hence free up time for staff to provide better quality care to patients.
—iGovernment Bureau