U.S. Army tests RFID technology for inventory of medical items in freezers

Recently, it was reported that a U.S. Army research institute has been testing an RFID solution that allows highly sensitive samples to be inventoried without leaving the freezer for the past two years. Currently, this research uses UHF RFID tags and UHF readers. As we all know, when experimenters take some of the most sensitive biological samples Stored in the laboratory out of the freezer, even just a minute will increase the temperature of the sample, so it is very useful to take inventory under the freezer. necessary.

The institute targets biological threats to the U.S. military and develops medical countermeasures. They employ military and civilian scientists and work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and multiple biomedical and academic institutions around the world to develop biosafety levels 3 and 4. Some of the work performed in advanced laboratories includes developing medical solutions such as vaccines and drugs as well as researching bioselective agents and toxin samples.

In general, inventory management means that every time a worker inspects and records a sample, he or she must take the sample out of the freezer, visually confirm the information on each sample with the naked eye, and then put the sample back into the freezer. However, this manual inspection method is time-consuming, error-prone, and poses risks to the integrity of the sample.

Typically, samples must be stored at -80°C (-112°F) or lower. "When they are removed from the freezer, once the temperature starts to rise, the samples will degrade. Therefore, in addition to accountability, the laboratory also needs to try to maintain the integrity of the biological samples," the relevant staff explained .

The institute's aim is to use RFID technology to track all samples. What is needed is not manual sample counting, but a solution that can read hundreds of samples simultaneously. Currently, the institute is focused on testing hardware components, including numerous UHF RFID tags and UHF handheld terminals. In the meantime, the team is exploring whether they can scan the freezers without opening them.

It is worth mentioning that many of the samples are composed of liquids or stored in environments surrounded by metal, so the research team has been testing which tags are most effective in these environments. Researchers will need to read the tags every month to determine whether tag sensitivity decreases over time in extremely cold environments.

Currently, the research is still in testing and they have not yet tested any temperature-sensing RFID tags. On the one hand, this can significantly reduce the time required to count inventory. On the other hand, it can eliminate manual counting and maintain sample integrity, thereby reducing the incidence of human errors. If successful, it will undoubtedly be a major technological breakthrough.