Radianse Announces Real-Time Tracking of Emory ED Staff and Patients to Trace and Contain Infectious Disease Spread

Radianse, Inc. announces that the Emergency Department (ED) of Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta is using the Radianse real-time location system (RTLS) with Smart Sense technology to know early and reliably where, when and with whom patients and staff have interacted.

According to Douglas Lowery-North, MD, vice chair of clinical operations for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory Healthcare and lead investigator of the tracking project, Emory is in the midst of a multi-year initiative to establish a Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. The hospital is gathering and using real-time location information to better understand and control the spread of influenza. Researchers will then apply what they've learned to create best practices across infection control.

"Our work requires that we measure interactions among ED patients and staff to the second and do so consistently and without disruption to care," says Lowery. "We use the data in a number of ways, notably to quickly and accurately identify and contain infectious disease."

"Radianse immediately understood the challenge and how to enable this use model," said Steve Schiefen of Radianse, "because this is precisely the level of complex problem that Radianse Reveal is designed to help solve. To be able to accurately and discreetly track the patient/provider interaction is a fundamental tool for this type of research. We built our platform and applications from the ground up to gather sophisticated intelligence around identity, time, location and context -- intelligence that helps hospitals improve clinical effectiveness."

Emory University Hospital Midtown's ED staff members wear small, Radianse active-RFID tags; patients receive a wearable badge at admission. Behind-the-scenes, the Radianse RTLS recognizes and records whenever patients and staff have a "meaningful" interaction, defined by Emory and easily programmed in the Radianse Smart Sense alerts application as "within one meter of distance, for 30 seconds or longer."

This real-time interaction data is combined with clinical data: when patient diagnosis is influenza, or another infectious disease, the hospital is able to identify and thwart potential spread, analyze patterns of transmission and intervene as appropriate to protect patients and the health of employees.

The Radianse active-RFID tags used by the hospital are comfortable to wear, cleanable to stringent healthcare standards and operate even if covered, for example, by a patient's hospital gown or blanket.