Near Field Communication For Healthcare

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

At the end of 2011, according to a report from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there were about 6 Billion mobile subscriptions out of 8 Billion population in the world. There for mobile communication methods has become popular and growing method of communication. Since these mobile devices are always on and with a particular person, they can be used as a personal communication method [].

In health care sector, personal health information is considered as private and confidential data. These data should be managed carefully because these are directly related to the life of human beings. Mistakes happening in the health care sector can even causes unexpected losses of lives. For example according to the international records 2-5% of all expenses of a large hospital are occurred due to such mistakes in medication. In Finland additional cost is about 40 million euros. Always these are the additional cost occurred in the system. These errors are mainly occurred due to lack of reliable methods of identification of errors such as, inabilities of getting historical data of the continuity of illness, providing old prescriptions and old laboratory test results. Since health care sector provides the service for a very large number of patient at the once identification problems can also be occurred. We will be overcome these errors if we can manage a person’s private health care information in a proper manner. In Canada alone, medication errors are the third leading cause of death after cancer and heart disease. An estimated 70,000 preventable medication errors occur in Canada annually, causing 9,250 to 23,750 deaths. However, these numbers may be grossly understated, as more than 40% of medication errors are not reported [3] [4] [5] [6].

A study over medication errors found that there are 7 main types of reasons that create a possibility for medication errors.

Dose of medication is incorrect

Time errors in giving the medicine.

Very fast rate IV.

Wrong concentration or dose of drug administered.

Errors of medical management.

Wrong medication administered.

Wrong drugs delivered due to misidentification of a patient

In order to overcome those problems we should manage a person’s private health care details in a manner that can be easily accessible. Scientists identified that the increasing usage of mobile phone can be used as a solution for this problem. A mobile phone can be used as an identification method which carries the reference to the important health care information about the owner. Since mobile phones are used in private based it is easy to track this data according to the person. Therefore the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can be used to overcome these problems [3].

Near Field Communication (NFC) is also one of the RFID communication methods which is a short range wireless communication technology used as a data transmission method. The importance of this technology is that this removes the main drawbacks of RFID technology. NFC provides standard protocols to communicate between different devices. Eliminate privacy issues of RFID previously had [2].

NFC enabled mobile devices can be used as identification tool for patients. Proper identification of patients is the most reliable solution for the problems that mentioned above. If patients have the NFC enabled devices such as smartphones there is no need to take their medical documents with them. Whenever they have their mobile phones with them they have their identification and all relevant medical data stored in a central location that can access by providing authentication data from the mobile [4].

The another emerging area of using NFC for healthcare is obtaining real time data such as blood pressure, pulse rate, sugar level of blood about patients. In here patients are given an NFC enabled device such as wrist watch which has to always be worn and the sensors that attach to the device will calculate relevant data about the patient. Then there is a receiver to receive and central server to analyze those data.

In this paper it will be clearly defined what is NFC, what are the main types of NFC and how it has implemented in healthcare sector and what are the future trends of using NFC in healthcare sector. In Section 2 it describes the Overview of the NFC. Section 3 is about the main types of NFC. Major research areas of using NFC in health care are briefed in section 4. Application of NFC in healthcare sector will be discussed under the Section 5. Future Directions of NFC will be presented in Section 6. After that the Section 7 discusses the essence of the research paper and the paper ends with Section 8 explaining my identifications in the research.

Overview – Near Field Communication

RFID is a wireless communication technology that uses magnetic field to transfer data from a tagged object. RFID is used to identify, track objects. Though the RFID can effectively be used in the healthcare sector, all of its benefits may not be realized due to five core limitations. Those are:

Interference of other medical devices.

Ineffectiveness: Difficulties in reading RFID tag from distance, identification of medical equipment and people separately.

Cost: High infrastructure cost.

Standardization: Lack of standard protocols cause ineffective operations among hardware and software from different manufacturers.

Privacy and legal issues.

By eliminating most of these limitations scientists had developed a new type of RFID communication technology called Near Field Communication that defines a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to set up radio communication between each other. [7] [8].

NFC is a short-range, standards-based wireless communication technology that utilizes RFID magnetic field induction which enables communication between electronic devices in the vicinity. It provides a transparent means of identification protocols that validate the secure transfer of data. This allows users to perform secure and contactless transactions, access digital data content and connect electronic devices by touching or bringing devices in the vicinity or reducing the distance between devices into centimeters.

NFC is operating in unlicensed frequency band standard of 13.56MHz at a distance between two devices up to about 20 centimeters. Currently offers data transfer rates of 106kbit / s, is expected to 212kbit / s and 424kbit / s, and higher rates might be introduced in the future in the future [2].

For two devices to communicate using NFC, one must be a NFC reader / writer and one must be having an NFC tag. This tag contains data that can be read and edited by the reader. In modern smartphones and PDAs this tag is implemented using an integrated circuit with inbuilt antenna to transfer the data.

There are two modes of operation that covered by the NFC Protocol: active and passive.

Active mode of Communication

Both the devices create their own magnetic radio fields to transfer data.

Passive mode of Communication

One device creates the radio magnetic field and other device uses modulation techniques to transfer stored data inside the device. This passive mode of communication is important for devices like smartphones and PDAs whereas, the optimized power consumption is important. This protocol enables such devices to use in power-saving mode.

There are two devices that involve in NFC communication. First device is called initiator which is an active device and uses magnetic induction to create a radio-wave field that the target can detect and responsible for starting the communication, whereas second device is called target which responses for the initiator’s requests. The communication between two devices starts when the active device gets close to the target and it generates a 13.56 MHz magnetic field and that will power the target device [1, 2].

Compared to the other wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi the data transfer speed is very less in NFC as maximum data transfer speed of 0.424 Mbps.

International standards of NFC

NFC Forum is the association which creates global standards and specifications for NFC communication that ensures inter-operability among devices from different vendors. This technology is supported by all leading payment devices providers, mobile devices and infrastructure manufactures mobile communication companies and consumer electronics companies. There were about

ISO, ECMA and ETSI standards are the main international standards that maintained by the NFC technology and ISO 14443 is the main standard that they compliant for smartcard interoperability which is compatible with the almost all the contactless smartcards and readers use in worldwide.

NFC Forum introduced two standardized initial technology specifications called Data Exchange Format (NDEF) for NFC compliant devices and Record Type Definition (RTD) for smart posters and texts.

NFC mandated tag types

There are a set of four initial tag formats that are announced by The NFC Forum. All of the devices that compliant with the NFC Forum must support for this formats. These tags are based on ISO 14443 Types A and B (the international standards for contactless smartcards) and FeliCa (ISO 18092, passive communication mode, standard). These tag compatibility is available with all the main NFC enabled mobile devices and smartcard vendors such as Innovision, Sony and Philips.

These tags are defined in a way that the can support a broader range of applications and devices.

Type 1

This is developed based on ISO 14443 A and currently available only from Innovision Research & Technology. This type of tags has a memory capacity of 96 bytes. These are applicable for wide range of NFC applications and cost effective.

Type 2

This is also developed based on ISO 14443 A and currently available only from Philips. These tags have the same memory capacity of type 1 tag which is 96 bytes.

Type 3

This type of tags had developed based on FeliCa and currently available only from Sony. This has a large memory capacity when comparing other two types which is 2 Kbytes and operates at a higher data rate (212kbit/s). These types of tags are suitable for complex applications.

Type 4

This type of tags had developed totally based with ISO 14443A/B and currently available from different manufacturers. This offers a higher data transfer speed from 160Kbit/s to 424 Kbit/s. This higher speed enables it to compatible with number of different devices.

Type 1 and Type 2 tags have dual state, which implies that they can be both readable and writable where once a data stored to the tag the NFC enabled devices can both read and write data to the tag. Type 3 and Type 4 tags only have one state which is readable where once a data stored in the tag the NFC enabled device can only read those data.

Figure 1: Dual-state tag types.

Different NFC modes of Operation

NFC enabled device can be applied the NFC technology according to three different modes. Latest smartphones has the ability of adjusting any of these three.

Peer-to-peer, where both the devices are generating radio magnetic fields to transfer the data.

Card Emulation, where NFC enabled device act as a smart ticket or a smart credit card. The new emerging area of mobile money is good example where smartphone use as a credit card.

Reader Emulation, where NFC enabled device is used to initiate another data transmission, read embedded data or unlock another service.

Figure2: NFC Modes of Operation.

Peer-to-peer applications

This is where the active communication is occurred. To set up a local communication between two NFC can be used. But the amount of information that can be transferred is relatively small. NFC can itself transfer this small amount of data as both devices are touching each other. But if the amount of data to be transferred is relatively large, a separate wireless data transfer connection like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi can be used.

Card Emulation applications

This is he emerging trend in consumer economy in the world, Mobile Money. All the credit card merchants, banks, mobile network operators try to introduce mobile money to their customers where NFC enabled phones are used as the payment devices. For customers this method is easy and safe than keeping money with them. For credit card merchants also this method is less costly and easier. In healthcare sector also this mobile payment methods can easily be implemented and it very secure for patients also rather than keeping money with them.

Reader Emulation

This is where the passive communication is occurred. The NFC enabled device is used to read a NFC tag by touching it. These tags may sometimes contain texts, URLs, numbers. These tags are used in posters and other NFC embedded notices. By touching the tag user may be redirected to some web site or display some message. The other usage is using the NFC enabled device as a way of identification. In healthcare sector this can be used as the patient identification and then use that identified data to access the historic data about the patient.

Applications of NFC in health care sector

In this section the applications of NFC in health care will be highlighted. The areas in health care that NFC could be effectively applied will be discussed under this section.

Patient identification and disease surveillance system

In healthcare sector proper identification of patients and their diseases is very much important. And once it identifies a particular disease continuous surveillance should be conducted. But the problem is that this health information is considered as private and confidential data. Therefore proper privacy protection methods should also be followed when storing this information. With the emerging usage of NFC enabled mobile devices scientists had identified that the potential of using NFC as a solution for this patient identification problem. Healthcare information of a particular patient is stored in a central database and then using patient’s mobile phone is used as identification for that information.

This application of NFC helps to reduce medication errors occurred due to the inability of recording all the visits of the patient to the hospital, not giving proper briefing about the continuity of illness, not providing details about continuous medications obtained, providing old lab reports and old prescriptions[].

Figure 3: Using RFID/NFC in medication care combined with electronic patient identification.

m-healthcare

The cost involving in providing healthcare facilities is a burning issue for most of the developing countries in the world. In here mobile based wireless communication methods are used to provide a solution for this problem without reducing the quality of the healthcare facilities. This m-healthcare architecture provides healthcare facilities to the people anytime by using mobile devices that are interconnected each other through the wireless communication network.

Health monitoring is the most important underlying task in hospitals or the health care sector. With the increased usage of mobile devices the requirement of mobile monitoring is also increasing rapidly. NFC enabled mobile devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, Tablets and watches are used to collecting data from the remote locations where the patient is originally settled. When wireless mobile network technologies are used to provide those data to the healthcare providers. Bounded characteristics of mobile devices such as personal to the patient, always on and traceability can be used to improve the performance of the system.

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system is implemented to store these data that are coming from the various devices and this makes the entire record keeping process easy. Doctors and nurses can update the records of this system and digitized materials such as x-rays, scan reports are also can be stored. Once a patient comes to get medications, identification is done through the NFC enabled mobile device and provides access for the relevant data in the database. This architecture proposes using NFC tags to store complete personal health information.

There are several advantages with this system such as,

• Providing real-time feedbacks.

• Involving low cost.

• Centralize control and easier access of personal healthcare information.

• Ability of storing digitized reports.

Figure 4: m-healthcare Architecture.

NFC-Enabled Drug Interaction and Drug Allergy Detection

In the healthcare sector medication errors are caused a considerable amount of losses of lives. It is identified that the main reason for these errors is the number of medications that are administrated. When the number of medications is increased possibility of an error is also increased. Therefore people who take several medications at once have high possibility of an occurring a medication error.

These medication errors can be reduced with the help of efficient medication management system. NFC technology is used to develop such a medication management system. Such system helps to increase the quality of the healthcare service and also increase the safety of the patient. NFC can be used to track objects such as people and medications. Therefore drugs can be mapped with the particular patients by using this NFC technology and hence identify the potential drug interaction and drug allergy.

Future Direction of NFC

Discussion

In this research paper we have discussed what is a Quantum Computer, How it evolved, the requirement behind a Quantum Computer, the researchers are being carried out by now in the field of Quantum Computing, the applications of Quantum Computers and at the same time the advantages, what sort of environment is needed to develop quantum computing and future directions. Therefore if we consider all facts given we notice that there is requirement of super power and extensively high performance computers. However the current classical computers architecture can’t fulfill the above requirement. Therefore scientists have to think of another way of addressing the so called problem. One option that scientists are currently working out is trying to present a solution by the means of Quantum Computers.

My Contribution

By conducting this literature review I was able to gather a bunch of knowledge related to the Near Field Communication Technology. I have identified that in Near Field Communication, the data is transferred between NFC enabled devices by creating radio magnetic field and there are several global standards of NFC the enables the inter-operability between different devices. I got to know that the NFC Forum is responsible for implementing these global standards. I also got a clear understanding about the limitations of NFC technology that can be barriers when applying NFC for healthcare sector. Therefore I understood that it should be properly designed to eliminate those barriers in NFC technology before applying it to the healthcare sector rather than directly applying it. Then I studied about different current applications of NFC in healthcare sector and some advantages of them. The future direction of NFC technology was my next area of study. Also I got an idea about what are the main researches that conduct on applying NFC for healthcare. With this improvement in the study I hope that I will be able to finish my study with the completion of all the research objectives and provide some new suggestions to the application of NFC in healthcare system of our country.

Acknowledgement

I heartily thankful to my supervisor who helped me to conduct this literature review on this interesting subject subject, Mr. Thilina Ranbaduge, whose encouragement, supervision and support from the preliminary to the current level enabled me to develop this research work. Lastly, I would like to put forward my sincere thanks to my mother, father, lecturers, my friends and those who supported me in several ways during the completion of this research work.

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19925506

[2] NFC-Forum, Available: http://www.nfc-forum.org

[3] Antti Lahtela, Marko Hassinen, Virpi Jylha "RFID and NFC in Healthcare: Safety of Hospitals Medication Care"

[4] C. i. f. h. information, "Health Care in Canada 2009: A Decade in Review," CIHI, Ottawa , 2009.

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[8] W. Yao, C.-H. Chu and Z. Li, "The use of RFID in healthcare: Benefits and barriers," in RFID-Technology and Applications (RFID-TA), IEEE International Conference on, 2010.

[9] A. Pankaj and B. Sharad, "Near Field Communication," SETLabs Briefings , vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 67-74, 2012.