Medica Corporation™ uses its proprietary knowledge of ion-selective electrodes and analytical microchemistry to manufacture a line of easy-to-use, easy-to-maintain, low-cost analyzers that can detect concentrations of various electrolytes in blood, such as potassium and sodium. Test reliability is highly dependent on the quality of the reagent in use. Medica designs its analyzers and reagents as a complementary system so that test accuracy is optimized. Therefore, authenticating the disposable reagent system used with the analyzer is critical to the quality of data received by the healthcare professional and the patient. Accurate test results are a precursor to proper patient treatment and ultimately patient safety.
Requirements:
- Authentication capability built into electrolyte analyzer to ensure that proper disposable reagent systems are being used and highest reliability test results are being provided.
- RFID reader technology must be embeddable in a new line of electrolyte analyzers.
- Reader technology must also fit into the installed base of existing electrolyte analyzers in the field.
- Solution must be cost effective so as not to add significant cost to products designed to serve the price sensitive blood gas analyzer market.
- Reader platform must scale over time to meet varying requirements.
Solution:
- Within six months of contacting SkyeTek™, Medica’s EasyLyte™ Analyzers were on the market with RFID-enabled capability to authenticate the disposable reagent being used.
- The flexibility and configurability of SkyeTek’s intelligent software offered a solution that worked with both new and legacy systems.
- Medica was able to incorporate RFID technology into their product lines as a standard, native feature by licensing SkyeTek’s Advanced Universal Reader Architecture (AURA)™ and ReaderDNA™ reference designs.