RFID and alzhiemers

As RFID adds information to objects, it has always seemed to be a natural way to assist those with loss of memory. It seems to me a little bit oversold in this article but support for Alzhiemers patients, even if it is just by labeling their clothes is a natural way forward. Tunstall is a major player in the UK assisted living market, and this sort of approach may well add value. In fact it may be that the business model for a lot of these tools may come from the "hotel" and lifestyle side of the market rather than the purely clinical side. Certainly buying new technology that hasn't passed a clinical trial is much easier for individuals or companies than for public health organisations. Maybe this is really consumer-centric healthcare in action.

On an unrelated note, good to see 007 using RFID tagged banknotes to find the rather uninspiring villain in Quantum of Solace. Still waiting for the plotline where the rugged yet fiercly brilliant RFID researcher is the hero...

Korean news...

Just back from the APEC e-health technical forum site :http://apec.ehrc.re.kr/ some interesting work on patient identification in hospitals as well as other projects. Korea has identified RFID as a major area for development in the next 5 years (Korean Times story here ). Phone manufactures and network providers are also seeing potentil in m-health so convergence is possible. Professor Lee and the people from Yonsei University made us very welcome, hopefully this collaboration can continue.