NeedleSight: We want you safe

Filed in archive Healthcare on April 15, 2009

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This RFID project has already won the people's choice award at the annual trade show of University of Victoria in Canada. Dubbed as NeedleSight, this RFID based solution which is the brainchild of MBA students at University of Victoria in Canada will help in identifying and disposing off needles thrown away by illegal drug users at public places.

Needles (the ones which are distributed by community health organizations and as a part of the needle exchanges program) will be embedded with RFID tags and cleaning staff will be able to find these discarded needles using RFID readers and hence cut down on the hazards of accidental needle jabs and also improve the levels of cleaning. Tags costing just five cents will be embedded to needles which cost around twenty cents and at the end of the day it would push up the cost of the final product marginally.

The project could face initial challenges in the form of cost and convenience since the reader required for detection would not only have to be small enough to become part of the safety gear of the workers but also be affordable at the same time. One positive finding which has emerged from all this is that it could deter drug abuse which is known to play with lives of people and prevent spread of infectious diseases too. I feel if this RFID needle project takes shape it could work for the benefit of the society as a whole.