Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/40004
2 SECURITY STATS www.securitysystemsnews.com SEPTEMBER 2011 SECURITY STATS RFID market growing in healthcare vertical A By Daniel Gelinas RECENT REPORT from Frost & Sullivan shows wider adoption of RFID technology is on the rise, which will lead to an increase in the market value of the healthcare-related RFID verti- cal. According to Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Neelima Sagar, the mar- ket will experience a substantial increase in value, growing at 16.9 percent CAGR from $442.5 million in 2010 to $1.32 bil- lion in 2017. What has driven the wider adoption of RFID technologies in the healthcare vertical? "The application of RFID in the health- care market has progressed from initial stages of experimentation, early stages of adoption to large-scale deployments. The potential for this technology still remains promising as the benefits of RFID continue to make a positive impact to processes that employ them," Sagar told Security Systems News. "The vertical has traditionally been a slow adopter of RFID technology; how- "It is very ever, increased investments in the RFID space are being witnessed in pharmaceu- tical and patient-tracking applications with the advent of regulatory recommen- dations. Applications such as drug track- ing and active RFID applications combin- ing environments and technologies … are expected to further boost the adoption of RFID technol- ogy in the healthcare vertical." important for the RFID vendors to identify the right set of channel partners as they could ultimately cause a company to succeed or fail." – Neelima Sagar Sagar also noted other factors, includ- ing government-ini- tiative compliance, concern for patient and employee safety, a need to improve operational efficien- cy, and technological advancements cou- pled with declining costs, also are driving growth of the market. Are there any stumbling blocks to fur- ther adoption of RFID? "Even though RFID provides significant benefits such as reduced inventory, better visibility, and enhanced labor efficiency, businesses are still not convinced that the return on investment will be realized, as the cost of tags and readers used in RFID technology is still significantly high when compared to the bar codes and magnetic stripes technology," Sagar said. She noted, however, that "the convergence of RFID and other wireless technologies, such as GPS, bar codes, and infrared technologies, is inevitable in the future. Increasingly, vendors, such as Awarepoint Corporation, are beginning to develop end-to-end solu- tions in order to offer a more comprehen- sive solution to the end users." The onus, therefore, is on dealers to become educated on the ROI that RFID presents as the technology progresses and converges with other technologies. CAGR of 16.9 percent "A growing demand is expected for sen- sor technology in combination with RFID in a package because it can monitor and record all sorts of environmental conditions," Sagar said. "In healthcare, RFID has the potential to benefit the end users in applications such as supply chain productivity and patient safety … It is very important for the RFID vendors to identify the right set of channel partners as they could ultimately cause a company to succeed or fail." SSN SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS