With the rise in the geriatric population with chronic illnesses and the need for surgeries, healthcare facilities are turning to RFID and IoT-based automation in healthcare services including surgical instrument tracking, hospital bed management, and patient care. The market for surgical instrument tracking systems was estimated at USD 66.61 million in the USA alone and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.01% globally between 2023 and 2028, with an increase of 186 million USD. The key factors driving this growth globally include the prevalence of chronic diseases, obesity, and an increase in the volume of surgeries as per a market trend report by Technavio.
Surgical Instrument Tracking System
Many surgical procedures are complex and necessitate advanced, sophisticated instrumentation, especially in the case of spine surgeries, neuro and cranial surgeries. Keeping adequate stock of these surgical instruments is of the utmost priority for healthcare institutions, and that is where a surgical instrument tracking system based on RFID technology plays a crucial role.
RFID technology is increasingly used in healthcare, be it patient care, bed tracking, medicine, or medical tool tracking. Smart RFID labels can be used on instruments to give them a unique ID which can be used to find the necessary instruments from the inventory and track the same throughout the premises. Not to mention the ever-efficient RFID readers which are easy to use, lightweight, portable (RFID handheld SLEDs), and offer the fastest scanning with over 1300 tags per second.
The RFID-based Surgical Instrument Tracking Systems can also be integrated with BLE beacons and other IoT devices to ensure round-the-clock track and trace throughout the premises, capturing all kinds of data on item movement, inventory, and even thefts and misplacements.
Apart from tracking of surgical tools, tracking of medical devices, vaccines and medicines, staff and patient tracking is also prevalent in the healthcare system.
What Makes a Surgical Instrument Tracking System?
A surgical instrument tracking system is a combination of hardware and software components. While using RFID technology with your system, you’ll require:
1.RFID Anti-metal labels for surgical instruments
2. RFID-fixed readers for gates and zones
3. RFID antennas
4. RFID handheld readers
5. Web software system that integrates the RFID hardware and facilitates track and trace
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Market Drivers for Surgical Instrument Tracking System
Several factors are driving the growth and demand for surgical instrument tracking. With the rising cost of healthcare added investments in the healthcare sector, and an increase in the volume of surgeries, the tracking and accurate inventory management of surgical instruments is becoming crucial. Another factor is the rising elderly population across the globe and the prevalence of chronic illnesses and obesity, most of them requiring surgeries in at least some form. This makes surgical instrument tracking a necessity. Many surgery-assistive technologies like Robotic surgical systems and Computer-assisted surgical systems require accurate tracking of surgical instruments across segments.
Additionally, surgical instrument tracking systems are also required to enhance surgical efficiency and surgical workflows and that is only possible through inventory and asset management during surgeries.
Challenges of using RFID Surgical Instrument Tracking System
Now coming to the market challenges and business challenges of surgical instrument tracking systems, there are several challenges such as high initial investment (costs). The RFID-based surgical instrument tracking offers a unique identity to each and every instrument streamlines inventory management and improves surgical workflows, however, the initial costs to set up the RFID surgical instrument tracking system are high, which often discourages healthcare businesses. In contrast, the barcode technology is significantly less costly and requires less set-up cost. While one Anti-metal RFID label can easily cost INR25 and more, a barcode label only costs INR 0.5. The same goes with RFID readers. RFID readers and antennas are way more costly than barcode scanners.
Another challenge with RFID-based surgical instrument tracking is interference caused by metal and liquid surroundings, which adversely affects reading accuracy. Efforts to minimize interference also inflate the costs of RFID-based surgical instrument tracking.
Finally, the healthcare sector is witnessing huge demand for surgical instrument tracking and inventory management. Technologies like barcode, RFID, and BLE can be leveraged to tag each instrument and track these instruments through unique identifiers. With the help of RFID, surgical instruments can be tracked throughout the premises and surgical operations can be carried out uninterruptedly, while also ensuring adequate stock levels for unforeseen demand.
The market for surgical instrument tracking has witnessed rapid growth over the years and it is expected that more and more healthcare facilities will opt for RFID-based track and trace of surgical tools given how the geriatric population is on the rise and the volume of surgeries required are also increasing due to prevalence of chronic illnesses.
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