If you are a health care professional you should not miss on this!! University of Arkansas students along with their computer sciences professor Craig Thompson are working towards creating a simulation environment which would enable health organizations to test RFID even before they implement it to the minutest detail.

So even before you implement RFID technology in your organization you would not only be aware about its physical deployment but also about the number of RFID tags and readers to be pressed into service.

The team has gone ahead and created a virtual hospital in a 3D virtual world named as Second Life. Visualizing everything in detail without implementing is an option now which would otherwise have involved hiring a contractor regarding estimates and design and it also didn't guarantee whether it would work or not.

The virtual hospital created includes patient rooms, OTs, labs, stock rooms, waiting rooms, pharmacy and bathrooms. You would feel as if you are touring a real hospital setup as it also includes facilities such as sinks, furnishings, showers, toilets, beds apart from several medical equipments. And don't be surprised if you come across doctors and nurses in form of avatars affixed with virtual RFID tags. You will even find virtual RFID interrogators at doorways and important places in the hospital.

I am just waiting for this project to move beyond the modeling stage so that its benefits could be tasted by health care organizations around the globe. Get a taste of this virtual RFID hospital project with some more videos on it.