Intelligent blood bags

Sunday, December 6, 2009 - 06:14 in Health & Medicine

In difficult operations, patients sometimes lose a lot of blood. Surgeons therefore keep blood supplies on hand for emergencies. If the blood bags are not needed, they can only be reused if the cold chain has been maintained. Up to now, monitoring this chain has been a tricky process, but, in the future, a radio node attached to the blood bag will constantly monitor the temperature to ensure that most of these blood supplies can be reused. The radio nodes should also help to improve safety. For example, using the wrong blood by mistake during a blood transfusion could have fatal consequences for the patient. Radio nodes attached to the blood bags and to a patient wristband can exchange information. If the donor blood does not match that of the patient, a warning signal sounds and a red light illuminates...

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