Smart tags to keep blood bags in ideal condition

TORONTO - Have the blood supplies in a blood bank become too warm? Do they match the patient’s blood group? In the future, these questions will be answered by intelligent radio nodes attached to blood bags.

The intelligent radio nodes were developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and the Fraunhofer Working Group SCS, Germany in collaboration with their partners T-Systems.

In difficult operations, patients sometimes lose a lot of blood. Surgeons therefore keep blood supplies on hand for emergencies. If the blood bags are not needed, they can only be reused if the cold chain has been maintained.

Up to now, monitoring this chain has been a tricky process, but, in future, a radio node attached to the blood bag will constantly monitor the temperature to ensure that most of these blood supplies can be re-used.

The radio nodes should also help to improve safety.

For example, using the wrong blood by mistake during a blood transfusion could have fatal consequences for the patient.

Radio nodes attached to the blood bags and to a patient wristband can exchange information. If the donor blood does not match that of the patient, a warning signal sounds and a red light lights up, says a release of Fraunhofer Institute.

A six-month test phase is set to begin at Erlangen University Hospital in January 2010, and the Opal Health system could be ready for use in around two years.