GE Healthcare Teams With Centrak To Introduce Battery-Based RFID Asset Optimization Solution

Main Category: Medical Devices
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 24 Jan 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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GE Healthcare announced a predominantly battery-operated radio frequency ID (RFID) tracking system in partnership with CenTrak, Inc. of Newtown, PA. The new asset optimization solution, an innovative introduction to the marketplace, will enable healthcare facilities to reduce installation barriers and costs, compared to current RFID systems, thereby serving them to maximize return-on-investment (ROI) potential. In addition, the solution's ability to accurately view locations at the room-level will enhance a hospital's operational efficiency and improve overall patient care.

GE Healthcare, one of the pioneers in the use of RFID in the healthcare industry, currently has 18 enterprise-wide installations in the United States, 200 workflow consultants, and thousands of managed assets with its RFID tracking systems. Current RFID solution clients include Emory HealthCare, Atlanta, GA; Lahey Clinic, Burlington and Peabody, MA; and Williamson Medical Center, Franklin, TN.

For GE Healthcare, the newly announced product is the next evolution of active- RFID solutions. The Real-Time Location System (RTLS) operates on a separate network that does not interfere with existing healthcare networks - both wired and wireless (i.e., 802.11). The solution is designed to accommodate virtually an unlimited number of tags and does not consume valuable bandwidth, providing customers the flexibility to expand their tracking needs and future applications without an additional burden in the healthcare WiFi proliferation.

The new hybrid DualTrak product, operating on both CenTrak's patented GEN2IR TM technology and 900 Megahertz (MHz) radio frequency (RF), also employs CenTrak's RTLS, the only predominantly battery-powered RTLS system with room-level accuracy in the world. "We partnered with CenTrak to deliver what our customers told us they wanted in a medical RFID tracking system: the ability to provide room-level coverage, be accurate and scalable, and be cost-effective, " said Bret Barczak, Director of Marketing, GE Healthcare. "Prior to this latest evolution, traditional RFID installations in a separate, wired infrastructure took six months. Now, with battery-operated readers, it may only take six days, minimizing installation costs, operational disruptions, and other hurdles."

"By partnering with GE Healthcare, we couple GE's established healthcare expertise in RFID technology with our proven track record of providing precise, adaptable, and cost- effective tracking systems " said Ari Naim, CEO, CenTrak. "We realized early on that the basic physics of RF-only RTLS solutions, such as WiFi RTLS, can never deliver a reliable room-level location and will always be just estimates with unpredictable accuracy. By incorporating our patented GEN2IR™ technology, trusted location accuracy can now be reliably delivered. It is no secret that room-level accuracy is the key to unlocking the most valuable functionality for many RFID applications and significantly impacting customer's ROI".

About Centrak

CenTrak is a leading provider of precise, adaptable, and cost-effective tracking solutions for healthcare, commercial, and industrial facilities. The company develops and markets Active-RFID network products used for tracking people and assets in real time, enabling greater workflow efficiency, asset utilization, and higher overall security. The patented InTouch Care Real Time Location System (RTLS) offers breakthrough performance and cost advantages that had been previously unattainable. It is the first predominantly battery-powered Active RFID network system in the world and it is currently operating in several world-class healthcare sites in the United States.

http://www.centrak.com

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.

GE Healthcare