Active RFID is now being used to track and trace victims in a disaster situation. This is one more situation in which RFID is being used to aid the public and save lives.

Data can be collected in real time and made available to emergency workers immediately, saving precious hours.

Crisis management teams, hospitals and other emergency personnel have access to the information via a computer database. Hospitals, for instance, can start planning for the arrival and treatment of disaster victims.

The Belgian Victim Tracking and Tracing System (BeViTTS) is the brainchild of Cisco Systems in cooperation with several other technology partners, as described in the press release:

BeViTTS was showcased at the University Hospital in Antwerp by Prof. Dr. Luc Beaucourt, head of the hospital's emergency department and medical assistance director of the provincial disaster plan. "In the event of a disaster, the efficient collection and rapid forwarding of clear, accurate information to the right persons or authorities is literally a matter of life and death," says Dr. Beaucourt. "The first hour after a trauma, which is generally known in the industry as the 'Golden Hour,' is crucial in defining the path of the subsequent treatment process. For this reason, it is vital that the victims of a disaster, particularly the seriously injured, receive the right treatment quickly. For that reason, a quick, correct identification and registration procedure, preferably at the scene of the disaster itself, is indispensable. The closest emergency services and hospitals with the required capacity and medical provisions also have to be given adequate warning and accurate information. Not to mention the family of the victims and the residents in the vicinity of the disaster."

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Cisco Systems developed the Victim Tracking and Tracing System in close co-operation with other technology providers. AeroScout provides the active WiFi standards-based active rfid tags, and Choke Point Exciters for detecting entry and exit from hospitals, CITS the back end and portal infrastructure, Orion Health is the vendor of the Portal and integration software CITS used, as a platform, to develop the BeViTTS Portal and Intermec the system's wireless RFID reader. The most important source of inspiration was the Dutch Victim Tracking and Tracing System, for which Cisco also provided the technology. The system, which has been thoroughly tested in the Netherlands over the past few years, is now officially being put into practice over there. More information about this Dutch counterpart of BeViTTS can be found at: http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/gov/Cisco_SVS.pdf.

While the Dutch emergency services still utilise the traditional bar code for registering and locating victims, the Belgian consortium has opted for the newer RFID technology.

Read the full press release here. Hat tip to MoreRFID.com.

What an excellent example of the potential of technology. It's too bad that so many people are fixated on the Big Brother concerns with RFID, because they miss out on lifesaving potential like this.

If people only knew -- RFID is certainly no worse than all the bank and retailer databases out there today with all sorts of information on us.

In fact, RFID is not as big a threat, simply because it is nowhere near as prevalent in use today as other uses of sensitive information.

People will happily tell a grocery store everything about themselves by handing up their loyalty cards every time they shop. They put everything they do on a credit card, and are thrilled when the credit card company issues a statement at the end of the year categorizing all their expenses and providing a veritable roadmap of their travels, their habits, their vices. Yet, they go ballistic over some theoretical possibility of RFID that is years away -- if ever -- from becoming a reality. Go figure.