Portable RFID tagged carrier for sterile implants and biological products
AssigneeWarsaw Orthopedic, Inc.
InventorsWesley J. Clement, Steven M. Tethrake
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Intelligent portable carrier device for supporting movement in product tracking and monitoring of regulated products, such as tissue and biologics. Embodiments of the invention use product identification technology, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and readers, to uniquely identify the regulated products as they are added to or removed from the intelligent portable carrier device. Embodiments of the invention may also be configured to monitor and report temperature and other environmental conditions associated with the intelligent portable carrier device.
Claims20
An intelligent portable carrier device comprising a housing including a lid-closure mechanism, a storage compartment, a battery compartment and a processor compartment, the housing being constructed of an RF absorptive material and configured such that any RF emitted energy within the housing does not emit outside the housing, the storage compartment comprising a plurality of regulated products disposed therein, the regulated products each comprising a read-write radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag coupled thereto, the read-write RFID tags each comprising a biosensor configured to detect a condition of the storage compartment, the device comprising a RF reader in the processor compartment configured to collect, decode and pass on information relating to the condition of the storage compartment based upon signals from the tags and to detect whether each of the regulated products is currently in the storage compartment or has been added to or removed from the storage compartment based upon signals from the tags.
A method for providing improved product tracking and monitoring of regulated products, the method comprising:
- providing an intelligent portable carrier device comprising a housing having storage compartment, a battery compartment, a processor compartment and a lid-closure mechanism, the housing being constructed of an RF absorptive material and configured such that any RF emitted energy within the housing does not emit outside the housing;
- affixing a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag to at least one regulated product initialized with at least a product ID code unique to the product type and a serial number unique to the at least one specific regulated product, the RFID tag comprising a biosensor configured to detect a condition of the storage compartment;
- placing the at least one tagged regulated product into the storage compartment;
- scanning the RFID tag with a scanning device comprising a RFID reader to determine the product ID code and serial number, the scanning device being configured to determine the condition of the storage component based upon signals from the RFID tag and to detect whether the at least one regulated product is currently in the storage compartment or has been added to or removed from the storage compartment based upon signals from the RFID tag;
- receiving the scanned data from said scanner into a local processor, the processor positioned in the processor compartment;
- transmitting said scanned data from said local processor through an electronic data network to a tracking server;
- creating a data record on said tracking server to contain said scanned data;
- providing a power fail circuit configured to detect a power failure condition of the device;
- and
- generating a power failure event code if the power fail circuit detects a power failure condition.
An intelligent portable carrier device comprising a housing including a lid-closure mechanism, a storage compartment, a battery compartment and a processor compartment, the housing being constructed carbon fiber and is configured such that any RF emitted energy within the housing does not emit outside the housing, the storage compartment comprising a plurality of regulated products disposed therein, the regulated products being selected from a group consisting of sterile implants and biologics, the regulated products each comprising a read-write radio-frequency identification tag coupled thereto, the tags each comprising a biosensor configured to detect a temperature of the storage compartment, the device comprising a RF reader in the processor compartment configured to collect, decode and pass on information relating to the temperature of the storage compartment based upon signals from the tags and to detect whether each of the regulated products is currently in the storage compartment or has been added to or removed from the storage compartment based upon signals from the tags.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.