In last week’s post, we looked at the ways Ultra Wideband (UWB) provides distinct advantages in location services, data transfer and integrated interactions over current industry standards. With these capabilities, UWB lends itself to many uses in a hospital environment. Where previous solutions have often cost too much and fallen short, UWB could enable disruptive solutions in these 5 applications:
Many current asset tracking solutions today leave customers unsatisfied with both the cost and the level of location accuracy. While the cost of implementing UWB systems is still high, the cost is much more reflective of the level of accuracy of the end product. As RSSI methods are commonly limited to around 5m of accuracy, many current RTLS systems provide “room-level accuracy” which is often reported by users to be inconsistent, showing tags in the wrong room - or even the wrong floor. Even with Infrared systems, tags require line-of-sight or generous reflections - good luck if you place your devices on a shelf. With UWB’s centimeter-level accuracy, devices can be located to part of a shelf for a device instead of a cabinet, room, or even a floor. Instead of only “kind of, sometimes knowing” where devices are, providers could use their phones or other UWB devices to find devices quickly. Integrations with common mobile devices such as iPhones would also mean that healthcare workers wouldn’t need expensive infrastructure or specialized scanners, but instead use their everyday work phone to locate their devices, saving systems costs on equipment and making location easily accessible to all of their staff.
The high positional accuracy may allow for more opportunities for automation, as it could allow for connected devices to be able to understand a dynamic environment better and interact with it more effectively. While robot wayfinding might benefit from a UWB network under the right circumstances, the ability for robots to see and interact with the network of tagged devices, facilitate more dynamic interactions between these robots and their environment is much more exciting.
For example, healthcare service robots can autonomously pick up carts, but are limited to predefined locations and will need to be loaded by hand if not carrying a cart. However, the centimeter level accuracy of UWB could enable these robots to interact directly with the items they carry and remove the need for human assistance with loading and unloading. It could also be used to find devices that are not placed in predefined locations, “opening up the world” to these robots.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, In 2020, 76.3% of nonfatal injury incidents intentionally caused by another individual happened in the healthcare industry. Duress incidents like these continue to be a threat to the health and safety of frontline healthcare workers. With these incidents, moments matter, requiring a rapid response to the worker in duress to help mitigate and resolve unsafe situations as quickly as possible. Therefore, duress systems must be able to quickly determine the location of the incident and the nearest responders. UWB duress systems would ensure the highest level of accuracy for all involved, making sure the right people get sent to the right place in time.
One promising application of UWB as radar is in patient monitoring, where UWB radar is capable of monitoring patient movement, occupancy, and patient vital signs. These systems would be non-contact and wouldn’t require cameras, enhancing patient privacy. These systems could even be extended to home health, allowing providers an easy way to monitor their patients’ health once they leave the hospital. UWB could also be used in conjunction with wearable technologies such as sensors. With the small form factor, ability to transfer large amounts of data with low power draw and high positional accuracy, one can imagine where UWB tags could be combined with existing wearable technology to allow for better connected sensors and patient fall detection.
In the event of an outbreak or unknown exposure, UWB tags could be used to identify sources of exposure and who they had nearby interactions with. Similar to duress incidents, this would provide a rapid way to help identify exposures and notify those exposed while maintaining patient privacy. This could be especially beneficial in intensive care units with patients who are particularly at risk to healthcare-associated infections and to the staff that may interact with these patients.
While UWB is a multifaceted technology beneficial to many different industries, it could be a disruptive technology in healthcare, enabling leaps forward in tracking devices, automating dynamic processes, and keeping staff and patients healthy. However, there are still barriers keeping these benefits from being realized. In a future blog post, we’ll discuss the obstacles that must be overcome to fully realize the benefits of UWB, particularly in healthcare.
