Short clip: Harvard Medical School and RFID: Just what the doctor ordered

>> Now RFID is also an area of radio frequency identification, in which you've been a pioneer. You put a chip in your arm about a year ago.

>> That's right. I have my medical records right here.

>> So what's happened since then? Because it seems like I don't know many other people who have chips in their arms at this point.

>> Well, RFID is becoming more and more common in health care to track equipment. So we have 5,000 pieces of equipment with RFID transmitters on them, this is active RFID, over a wireless network, so we can figure out where is the closes ventilator? Where is that EKG device or IV pump? It helps us to prevent theft. It helps us to be much more efficient about using our supplies. For the use of RFID, patient wristbands make sense, not necessarily implanted RFID. I mean, that may be good for some people. But I'll tell you one exciting of RFID development, the ability of RFID sensors to check glucose levels. This means if you're a diabetic, no longer do you have to prick your finger, you scan your RFID to measure your glucose. Those will be coming in the next year to two.

>> And what about the cost of a device like that? Is it going to be cost prohibitive for most patients?

>> Well, RFID like so many other technologies is becoming cheaper and cheaper with each passing year. Obviously when you look at Wal-mart, they're seeing five cent RFID tags. Well, for humans, you're still up in the hundred dollar range for implants, but I suspect that'll come down over time.

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