Frangible Skin Wearable ID for Care Transition Coordination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current healthcare systems face inefficiencies and risks during patient transitions between facilities due to inadequate patient identification and information management, leading to miscommunication, increased costs, and potential medical errors.
Innovation Solution
A secure, frangible, waterproof cutaneous identification device (CID) is temporarily bonded to a patient's skin, providing unique, non-transferable identification that connects to a cloud-based system for real-time information access and management, ensuring seamless transitions and reducing errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If manual processes are used for patient transitions between facilities, then flexibility and adaptability are maintained, but time consumption and risk of errors increase
Solution Approach 1:
An automated communication system acts as an intermediary between facilities, automatically transmitting patient information, care plans, and transition data between sending and receiving facilities. This intermediary system handles the complexity of data management, coordination, and error prevention, while reducing the time required for manual transitions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical processes (paper-based communication, phone calls, faxes) with an automated electronic communication system that uses computers, networks, and software to transmit patient information. This substitution eliminates manual errors and significantly reduces transition time while managing complexity through automation.
2Reliability
If automated communication systems are implemented for patient transitions, then time efficiency and error reduction are achieved, but system complexity and integration requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The communication system is designed to perform multiple functions: transmitting patient information, sharing care plans, coordinating transitions, and maintaining communication between facilities. By creating a universal system that handles various transition scenarios through a single platform, the patent reduces the need for multiple separate systems and interfaces, thereby managing complexity while improving reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms that automatically confirm successful information transmission, alert participants to errors or missing data, and enable real-time corrections. This feedback loop ensures high reliability by immediately detecting and correcting errors, while the automated nature of feedback reduces the need for complex manual verification procedures.
3Reliability
If comprehensive patient information is shared during transitions, then care quality and continuity are improved, but information management complexity and privacy risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patient information is segmented into structured components such as demographic data, medical history, current care plans, medication lists, and discharge instructions. This segmentation allows the system to manage comprehensive information in organized, manageable units that can be selectively transmitted and tracked, reducing management complexity while maintaining care continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The automated communication system serves as a secure intermediary that manages the transmission, storage, and access control of comprehensive patient information. It implements privacy protections, authentication mechanisms, and audit trails automatically, thereby enabling full information sharing for care continuity while managing privacy risks and information complexity through centralized security protocols.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method to manage the transitioning the care of an individual in a healthcare setting from one point of care with a particular set of characteristics to the another physical location with a different set of characteristics by providing for the retrieval of information relating to an individual by a plurality of authorized users and devices at multiple facilities. The system includes a skin wearable, waterproof, non-transferable frangible individual identification device comprising an adhesive and an ink arranged to provide a physiologically and optically perceptible, humanly understandable, and machine readable information relating to said individual.