A knowledge-based framework enabling decision support in RFID solutions for healthcare

The benefits of RFID technology in the healthcare sector are widely acknowledged. Nevertheless, the adoption of RFID as a means for pure item identification prevents adequate support to most knowledge-intensive medical tasks. Here an innovative Decision Support System for healthcare applications is presented, based on a semantic enhancement of RFID standard protocols. Semantically annotated descriptions of both medications and patient´s case history are stored in RFID tags and used to help doctors in providing the correct therapy. The proposed system allows to discover possible incompatibilities in a therapy suggesting alternative treatments.