Healthcare  Market Recommended Products

Traditionally, the healthcare industry has been slow to adapt to new technologies; however, this trend has been changing recently due to an increased understanding of how AIDC technology benefits the industry.

Within the healthcare industry four sub-industries can benefit from AIDC technology:

• Pharmaceuticals
• Patient Care
• Hospitals
• Life Sciences 

Datalogic Scanning understands the healthcare industry is unique from other industries using AIDC in that the primary purpose for use is not improved inventory control, asset tracking, and data management. While these benefits are ultimately realised by all industries using AIDC, the ultimate purpose for healthcare's utilisation is always patient safety. For example, patient safety can be improved by the use of AIDC technology by helping to uncover counterfeit drugs in pharmacies.

Datalogic's industry knowledge and vast experience with AIDC technology are the best choice for healthcare providers because Datalogic knows that errors are not an option. All Datalogic products are held to industry-leading quality and reliability standards.

Healthcare and Bar Code Scanning

Bar coding is currently the most widely used form of AIDC technology in today's healthcare industry. Datalogic bar code scanners can be used for many different applications to prevent medical errors.

Some of these applications are:

• Medication management systems – delivering the right drug, to right person, at the right time

• Drug identification – bar coding can help eliminate counterfeit or expired drugs from being distributed
Infusion safety – one of the most common medical mistakes is incorrect infusions, bar coding blood and other products helps eliminate this mistake

• Patient identification – makes sure the right patient is receiving the right treatments

• Specimen collection – ensures correct patient receives right analysis

• Laboratory work – guarantees that the right tests are performed

• The benefits bar codes offer healthcare entities are impossible to ignore. There is a trend of adopting 2D bar codes in the healthcare industry in order to store more information.

General Purpose Handhelds

• Magellan 1400i: On-Counter Presentation Omnidirectional Bar Code Reader  
• Magellan 1000i: On-Counter Presentation Omnidirectional Bar Code Reader  
• Gryphon I GD4100 General Purpose Corded Handheld Linear Imager Bar Code Reader  
• Gryphon Desk General Purpose Corded Handheld Linear Imager Bar Code Reader  
• Gryphon Desk 2D Plus General Purpose Corded Handheld Area Imager Bar Code Reader  
• QuickScan QS6500 General Purpose Corded Handheld Linear Imager Bar Code Reader  
• QuickScan QS6500BT General Purpose Handheld Linear Imager Bar Code Reader with Bluetooth® Wireless Technology  
• QuickScan Mobile QM2100 General Purpose Handheld Linear Imager Bar Code Reader with Datalogic's STAR Cordless System™  
• QuickScan I QD2100 General Purpose Corded Handheld Linear Imager Bar Code Reader  
• QuickScan L General Purpose Corded Handheld Laser Bar Code Reader 

Case Study - The 13th Estoril Open tennis tournament

The 13th Estoril Open tennis tournament, which is also the biggest Portuguese tennis tournament, took place on the 10th to 18th April 2004 in the “Courts de Jamor” of the Estadio Nacional, bringing together the world’s best clay court players to participate in the tournament.

According to the organisers a total of 33,212 spectators turned up to the tennis complex this year. Not even the adverse weather conditions, which included intense rainfall, scorching sun and strong winds, were sufficient to de-motivate the international public who participated in this event with great enthusiasm.

In order for such an event to be successful, every aspect of the organisation must be well co-ordinated. To achieve this, behind the scenes, the complete IT system and in particular the control of the entrances was the responsibility of Cartosis, a company specialised in the production of passes and solutions for security systems. For this event, Cartosis developed a specific software according to the client needs, to control the access to the box seats and courts, as well as the entrances to the VIP lounge which was reserved exclusively for guests.

The solution was based on the use of the new Heron™ hand-held readers from Datalogic supplied by Identisis-Sistemas de Identificação Automática, a Datalogic Quality Partner in Portugal. The high performance reader for instinctive reading features the Datalogic patented green-spot to easily position the code for good read feedback. It reads both standard linear codes and RSS at a rate of 256 scans/sec, with full connectivity to the most common interfaces (USB, serial, wedge, wand, IBM and TTL).

The Heron™ bar code readers were used to read the bar codes printed on the entrance tickets of the guests, and were connected directly to a PC, for validation of the tickets, eliminating the need for bi-directional validation. The complete solution presented by Cartosis was very practical, rapid and efficient, as it avoided the formation of queues despite the considerable influx of spectators.

The 13th Estoril Open tournament was an all round success, with the help of advanced technology in the field of automatic identification, and it stood out for the feat achieved by the Argentinean winner Juan Ignacio Chela, who was the first player to win singles and doubles at the same tournament on the ATP circuit this year, and the second to achieve this feat in Estoril since 1990.