A Touch Probe Method of Operating an Implantable RFID Tag for Orthopedic Implant Identification

Orthopedic implants are a type of joint implant such as knee and hip implant to replace the severely injured

or diseased joints for people who suffer from joint problems and bring those people back to a normal life. The total number of knee and hip replacement  surgeries  per year in US keeps increasing  in the recent years and will hit 3.48 million  in 20 years. However, once the implant replacement surgery is finished, doctors and surgeons have difficulty to observe and obtain the detailed information of the implant. Existing methods for implant identification suffer from several drawbacks. First, the information is not stored on the implant but somewhere else, which can raise the risk of data loss or counterfeiting. Second, most hospitals use paper based archives to keep the patient history whose management is a huge cost. Third, it takes much time to search for the implant and patient information, which does not only increase the risk of mistakes but also increases the cost. Aiming at providing an efficient and accurate way for orthopedic implant identification to reduce time and cost, a method of using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, a wire- less radio frequency communication technology, for orthopedic implant identification has been proposed. The proposed solution is to attach a battery free implantable RFID tag on the orthopedic implant.

1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

       Orthopedic implants are a type of joint implant such as knee and hip implant to replace the severely injured

or diseased joints for people who suffer from joint problems and bring those people back to a normal life. The total number of knee and hip replacement  surgeries  per year in US keeps increasing  in the recent years and will hit 3.48 million  in 20 years. However, once the implant replacement surgery is finished, doctors and surgeons have difficulty to observe and obtain the detailed information of the implant.

     Existing methods for implant identification suffer from several drawbacks. First, the information is not stored on the implant but somewhere else, which can raise the risk of data loss or counterfeiting. Second, most hospitals use paper based archives to keep the patient history whose management is a huge cost. Third, it takes much time to search for the implant and patient information, which does not only increase the risk of mistakes but also increases the cost. Aiming at providing an efficient and accurate  way for orthopedic implant identification to reduce time and cost, a method of using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, a wire- less radio frequency communication technology, for orthopedic implant identification has been proposed. The proposed solution is to attach a battery free implantable RFID tag on the orthopedic implant.

1.2 RFID TECHNOLOGY

       RFID system consists of a reader and a transponder. The reader consist of an antenna and an external interface. The transponder consist of a chip and an  antenna. The reader gets and executes commands from the back end system. Reader emits RF signal via its antenna. The waves travels through the air and energize a passive transponder. Tag responds and transmit data signal via its antenna. Reader captures the tag data signal and processes the signal and transmit the processed signal to the external interface.

1.2.1 REASON FOR USING RFID TECHNOLOGY

         There are several reasons to use RFID for implant identification. First, an RFID tag has a rewritable memory large enough for not only an implant ID but also a complete patient registry including patient details, operation details and implant details. Second, the average period for reading an RFID tag is only a few seconds, a lot less than searching a paper based record.Third, the information is always kept on the implant, so there will be no worry about data loss or counterfeiting. Fourth, the RFID tag can be used as a server to drive a biosensor  for monitoring the status of the implant to help diagnosis, which is a popular research topic at present and will have huge potential applications in the future.

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