Semih Utku

Cryptographically Supported NFC Tags in Medication for Better Inpatient Safety

Reliable sources report that errors in drug administration are increasing the number of harmed or killed inpatients, during healthcare. This development is in contradiction to patient safety norms. A correctly designed hospital-wide ubiquitous system, using advanced inpatient identification and matching techniques, should provide correct medicine and dosage at the right time. Researchers are still making grouping proof protocol proposals based on the EPC Global Class 1 Generation 2 ver. 1.2 standard tags, for drug administration. Analyses show that such protocols make medication unsecure and hence fail to guarantee inpatient safety. Thus, the original goal of patient safety still remains. In this paper, a very recent proposal (EKATE) upgraded by a cryptographic function is shown to fall short of expectations. Then, an alternative proposal IMS-NFC which uses a more suitable and newer technology; namely Near Field Communication (NFC), is described. The proposed protocol has the additional support of stronger security primitives and it is compliant to ISO communication and security standards. Unlike previous works, the proposal is a complete ubiquitous system that guarantees full patient safety; and it is based on off-the-shelf, new technology products available in every corner of the world. To prove the claims the performance, cost, security and scope of IMS-NFC are compared with previous proposals. Evaluation shows that the proposed system has stronger security, increased patient safety and equal efficiency, at little extra cost.

Analysis of two protocols using EPC Gen-2 tags for safe inpatient medication

The number of people suffering due to wrong medication is increasing. A hospital-wide ubiquitous system can prevent inpatient medication errors. A correctly designed system guarantees the correct medicine and dosage administration, at the correct time. Such a system also helps tracing the location, time of errors and generates fast alarms to prevent harm to patients. Two proposals using UHF passive radio frequency identification tags have been made. But the proposed schemes give away critical patient information, raising privacy and intentional harm concerns. This work studies the proposals and demonstrates a new full-disclosure attack, on both. In addition, the weaknesses of protocols using the PRNG and CRC functions as encryption algorithms are studied. A conclusion is drawn about the suitability of grouping proofs and other protocols using the EPC Global Class-1 Generation-2 tags, in patient medication.

Is NFC a Better Option Instead of EPC Gen-2 in Safe Medication of Inpatients

Wrong medication is an important problem of the citizens of many countries. Using contemporary technologies like UHF Gen-2 RFID tags helps decreasing the medication errors, experienced by many. As UHF Gen-2 tags have limited capacity, cryptographic algorithms cannot be accommodated. The only available functions PRNG and CRC cannot be used instead of cryptographic algorithms. To overcome the known weaknesses, various grouping protocols have been proposed. But, each protocol has some deficiencies. Two of those protocols are covered in this study. Some of their common deficiencies are studied and solutions are suggested.

A new approach for surface construction in medical applications: Fair tiling

Several tools and applications help doctors in medical area. 3D models generated by various visualization methods are currently used in disease diagnosis and treatment. During 3D model generation, several problems arise. One of the major problems of generating 3D models from consecutive 2D slices is surface construction. This study presents a surface construction method, fair tiling, which is used to generate surfaces of from arbitrary points. These points are gathered from CT images to construct vessel-like structures. Fair tiling presents an easier structure compared to other methods in the area.

A robotic system to prepare IV solutions

Drugs need to be used regularly and correctly in order to be effective. When medicines are used correctly, negativities that threaten human health and life can be avoided, but they can cause unwanted situations that can occur until the end of life when they are used incorrectly. The most common drug administration errors in hospitals are: The wrong dosage of the drug given to the patient, the timing and / or the method of administration, the wrong drug given to the patient, the drug given to the wrong patient, or even not given. Furthermore, the information about the drug that is administered to the patient may not be registered at all. In this research, a robotic drug preparation system and a communication server accepting prescription orders have been developed. Component engineering methodology is further utilized in the design of the Drug Preparation System to maximize reuse, increase product reliability, reduce design, code and test efforts. The IV Robotic Drug Preparation Robot is composed of a robotic work station and a Cartesian carrier to carry the work station to the desired location. The robotic work station has several grippers to handle syringes, to pull the piston of the syringe and to lock the closed system connector to the vial. The IV Robotic Drug Preparation System and communication server are developed and being used in the hospitals. Due to this system, medicines left unused in vials can be used and a great amount of savings is obtained from the drug purchases.

Virtual reality measurement tool: Kinect MedVision

Digital images obtained through medical imaging techniques are viewed using different visualization applications (methods). Also with the help of these applications, the three dimensional (3D) models of the images are created. Usually, the visualization and modelling processes are executed by medical staff, using general purpose applications. Via the same applications operation planning is made, after various calculations and diagnosis. In our time, virtual reality applications also come forward as tools that support planning. In present study, a virtual reality application has been developed. The developed application is used to detect the movements, via a Kinect device. The work presents a software that aids the medical staff to do rotation, zooming, and length measurement between two points, on 3D objects. The developed software has been successfully tested on 3D heart and aortal aneurism.

Automated personnel-assets-consumables-drug tracking in ambulance services for more effective and efficient medical emergency interventions

Patient delivery time is no longer considered as the only critical factor, in ambulatory services. Presently, five clinical performance indicators are used to decide patient satisfaction. Unfortunately, the emergency ambulance services in rapidly growing metropolitan areas do not meet current satisfaction expectations; because of human errors in the management of the objects onboard the ambulances. But, human involvement in the information management of emergency interventions can be reduced by electronic tracking of personnel, assets, consumables and drugs (PACD) carried in the ambulances. Electronic tracking needs the support of automation software, which should be integrated to the overall hospital information system. Our work presents a complete solution based on a centralized database supported by radio frequency identification (RFID) and bluetooth low energy (BLE) identification and tracking technologies. Each object in an ambulance is identified and tracked by the best suited technology. The automated identification and tracking reduces manual paper documentation and frees the personnel to better focus on medical activities. The presence and amounts of the PACD are automatically monitored, warning about their depletion, non-presence or maintenance dates. The computerized two way hospital-ambulance communication link provides information sharing and instantaneous feedback for better and faster diagnosis decisions. A fully implemented system is presented, with detailed hardware and software descriptions. The benefits and the clinical outcomes of the proposed system are discussed, which lead to improved personnel efficiency and more effective interventions.

Security Issues of a Recent RFID Multi Tagging Protocol

RFID is now a widespread method used for identifying people and objects. But, not all communication protocols can provide the same rigorous confidentiality to RFID technology. In return, unsafe protocols put individuals and organizations into jeopardy. In this paper, a scheme that uses multiple low cost tags for identifying a single object is studied. Through algebraic analysis on chronologically ordered messages, the proposed multi tag arrangement is shown to fail to provide the claimed security. The weaknesses are discussed and previously proven precautions are recommended to increase the security of the protocol, and thus the safety of its users.