Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium details plans for commercializing technology to track and monitor blood products

The Transfusion Medicine RFID Consortium announced today that S3Edge Inc., the software partner for the consortium has been selected to exclusively commercialize the RFID and barcode based Blood Product Tracking suite of applications designed and built under a private, academic, and public initiative funded by the NIH. The system, consisting of mobile, desktop, and server software applications provides greater visibility to the physical movement of blood products, while improving the efficiency of Blood Center operations.  The RFID consortium includes BloodCenter of Wisconsin, SysLogic Inc., S3Edge Inc., Carter Bloodcare, Mississippi Blood Services, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Mississippi Baptist Health System, University of Wisconsin Madison – RFID Laboratory, and Mediware Corp.
The suite of applications has been deployed in a production pilot at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) with promising results. "Thanks to the outstanding work of the entire consortium team, we have successfully piloted the new system to track blood products as they move from fixed and mobile donation sites, through the blood center and to distribution. After 24 weeks of running the system in a pilot mode here at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin, we have seen process efficiency and traceability gains, as well as marked improvements in reconciliation," said Lynne Briggs, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for BloodCenter of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
The hospital transfusion services tracking module was piloted at the DeGowin Blood Center at UIHC where it was run in parallel with IPR, an internally developed barcode-based tracking system.  "The RFID system provided equivalent capabilities to those of IPR in terms of detecting and resolving process errors.  It additionally provided the blood bank staff real-time visibility for blood products in transit from the hospital blood bank to the point-of-care and in remote storage in our emergency department." said Dr. Thomas J. Raife, MD, Clinical Professor & Medical Director, UIHC DeGowin Blood Center.
The initiative to introduce RFID technology in transfusion medicine is also a showcase of how ground-breaking solutions can be very effectively designed, developed, and commercialized via private-academic-public initiatives for the healthcare industry. "This effort represents the culmination of years of hard work by the consortium members in bringing a much needed innovation to the market in a collaborative manner. We are pleased to see S3Edge taking the next steps to ensure that the cumulative efforts of the consortium benefit the transfusion medicine industry as a whole," said Rodeina Davis  who was the principal investigator for the STTR grant, and a luminary in the transfusion medicine field recognized for her role in advancing this new technology from idea to adoption.
SysLogic Inc., one of the founding members of the consortium and awardee of the STTR grant allowing for creation of the system will continue to spearhead efforts to obtain the 510(k) clearance for the blood product tracking suite of applications developed by the consortium. "Today's announcement solidifies our commitment not just to create compelling technology, but to realize the vision of creating a successful product for the transfusion medicine industry. We look forward to completing the requirements for the 510(k) clearance and facilitate the technology's potential to transform current operations in the transfusion medicine industry for all end-users," said Tina Chang, CEO of SysLogic Inc., a Brookfield, Wisconsin-based information systems consulting and services firm.
"S3Edge is extremely pleased to lead the commercialization effort and make the technology broadly available to the transfusion medicine industry. This significant milestone could not have happened without the efforts, guidance and leadership of the consortium. We look forward to working in tandem with this team of health care stakeholders and distinguished researchers to ensure Blood Centers around the world can take full advantage of this new system," said Mark Anastas, President of S3Edge Inc.