Student designs smart patient ID wristband

A university student has designed a reusable intelligent identity wristband, which could help eliminate patients being given the incorrect medicine.

Claire Dunne, an Industrial Design and Technology student at Brunel University designed the wristband, called ‘Brilliant’.

The wristband works by using a sensor to match medicines against the patient. It scans electronic tags built in to the medicines packaging, to ensure it is of the correct type.

Medication errors, caused by giving patients the incorrect medication or dose, cause over 1200 deaths a year, experts say. Errors can occur because drugs have similar packaging, illegible handwriting on the drug chart or incorrect identification of the patient.

Ms Dunne said that by electronically matching the drugs to the patient, the Brilliant wristband would prevent these situations and ensure that human error is reduced.

The Brilliant wristband works by using a sensor to scan medicines and a chip, which is programmed with the patients’ details and drug requirements upon their arrival in hospital. The details are then displayed on two small screens built into the wristband, which update when the drug is touched against the sensor.

The wristband works in conjunction with electronic chips, attached to the medicines packaging, known as an iButton. When the drugs packaging is touched against the sensor on the wristband, it can recognise whether the drug is correct or not and displays this information on the wristband.

Each time a dose is given, the date and time are logged in the chip contained inside the wristband, which can be downloaded on to a computer at the end of the patient’s stay in hospital.

The wristbands electronics are also re-usable by simply wiping the information on the chip.

The wristband has been tested successfully with staff at St. Anthony’s Private Hospital in Surrey. Ward Sister Helen Groome said that the wristband was “a really practical use of electronic-tagging in medical equipment design”. She said: “Brilliant will give an extra level of security to both staff and patients – ensuring that the correct drug is being administered at the correct time.”

(KMcA/SP)