A company called Gentag has announced a new technology for hospitals to use aimed at reducing medical errors. The RFID skin patches stick to the skin of the patient with a breathable bandage like material.

When scanned the tags provide health professionals information on the patient like allergies, procedure to be performed, and other related data. Gentag says that the tags can also be used to match new mothers with the correct newborn child.

"By combining cell phones with RFID skin patches, we feel that medical errors in hospitals worldwide can be reduced significantly, resulting in major cost benefits," announced Dr. John Peeters, the founder of Gentag. Our unique, patented, non-invasive solution combines disposable skin patches with RFID tags and cell phones and will allow physicians and nurses to use their cell phones or wireless PDAs to update medical charts, time of patient visit, drug administration, and also be immediately warned about possible drug interactions, prior to drug delivery. It is anticipated that these RFID skin patches and matching cell-phone software will be competitively priced to allow hospitals worldwide to use the technology."

Via Gentag