Semantic-based Decision Support in Healthcare via Radio Frequency Identification

RFID technology is widely adopted in healthcare, but pure item identification does not provide benefits in knowledge-intensive medical tasks. The paper proposes an innovative Healthcare Decision Support System (HDSS), based on a semantic enhancement of EPCglobal RFID standard protocols. Annotated descriptions of medications and patient's case history are stored in RFID transponders and used to help caregivers provide the right therapy. The proposed framework includes a lightweight reasoning engine to infer possible treatment incompatibilities and suggest alternatives. The HDSS is independent from back-end infrastructures, enabling full exploitation in ubiquitous healthcare contexts such as first aid, ambulance transport, rehabilitation facilities and home care.