TAGSYS Item-level RFID Systems Adopted by leading Life Science Research Labs
MARSEILLE — TAGSYS announced recently that its item-level RFID solution for the life sciences industry is successfully being used in four of France's most prestigious hospital research laboratories: La Timone, Marseille Medical Faculty, Hospital La Conception and the Paoli Calmettes Institute. TAGSYS ARIO™ SDM (Small Disc Module) 13.56 MHz High-Frequency RFID tags are used to reliably, accurately and securely track and manage invaluable pathology samples.
TAGSYS' ARIO SDM is a pharmaceutical and medical application-specific tag designed to meet the industry's critical need for safe, accurate and timely tracking of vitally important laboratory test research, such as stem cell and cancer research samples. Applied to large patient samples, the TAGSYS RFID item-level solution allows for more frequent and regular monitoring of pathology samples, thus increasing the amount of data available, and improving the quality and timeliness of treatment development.
The ARIO SDM is amongst the smallest and most versatile RFID tags available on the market today, based on a tag measuring just 8.9mm in diameter. Unlike larger and less resilient tags that have been used in the industry, ARIO SDM is small enough to be embedded into the tops of test tubes. These robustly designed tags are fully functional and readable when subjected to wide and precipitous temperature variations typically found in medical research labs. For example, research samples can be maintained and tags read in temperatures as low as -32O°F (-196°C), as would be typical in liquid nitrogen storage, and can withstand a swing up to 257°F (125°C) in a matter of seconds.
TAGSYS RFID solutions are developed according to the company's RAS (Reliability, Accuracy and Security) design and production philosophy that achieves virtually 100% readability of its HF RFID tags. This is particularly important in an industry where accuracy and mistakes translate directly to patient well-being.
"The Paoli-Calmettes Institute's Cell Therapy Facility and Tumor Cell Bank are two highly valuable facilities shared by patients, physicians and scientists alike; the research conducted here requires the most timely, precise and efficient management of human pathology samples that are processed and stored in an extreme environment," said Dr Christian Chabannon, head of The Paoli-Calmettes Cell Therapy Facility. "Our adoption of RFID technology is a groundbreaking move within the life sciences industry as the enhanced identification capabilities over traditional bar code technologies becomes apparent. In deploying the most progressive identification solution on the market, TAGSYS enables us to seamlessly manage our test specimens in a safe and accurate manner to eliminate inefficiencies while increasing overall availability and reliability of our test data."To provide for further efficiency, the tags also feature an anti-collision function enabling the simultaneous reading of numerous tags. This functionality is crucial when searching for a specific sample on a tray of multiple vials. When placed on a reading station, up to one hundred tags can be read in less than three seconds, while locating a specifically targeted vial, resulting in tremendous time savings for researchers.
The tags feature a unique serial number as well as ample memory that can be read, modified and protected. The serial number sample data is linked to a database housing critical information on tissue samples, including patient data, tissue treatments and other variables. This information is read from a distance of a few inches using a TAGSYS fixed desktop or lightweight RFID hand-held reader. The software empowering this application was developed by partner Cybernetix, a specialist in robotics and automation.
"The industry's need and demand for RFID technologies that specifically address the unique item-level tagging requirements of the life science sector was heard loud and clear across the marketplace," said Elie Simon, CEO of TAGSYS. "At TAGSYS, our business is based on developing RFID solutions that meet the unique requirements of specific vertical sectors. The successful deployment of RFID in the laboratories is proof positive that RFID can deliver very specific benefits when the appropriate technology is deployed."
SOURCE: TAGSYS