A Modular, Battery-Free, Wireless Information Carrier for Storing Long-Term Medical Records

InHand Electronics (Rockville, MD) proposes the development of a state-of-the-art wireless information carrier, a so-called Medical Dogtag or MTAG. The MTAG will meld a combination of technologies - a passive radio frequency identification (RFID)technology and a bus-powered Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, to create a battery-free flexible storage device capable of storing up to 20 years of textual and graphical medical record data. InHand Electronics will leverage its expertise in developingextremely small, low-power, low-cost electronics platforms in the development of the MTAG. The key features of the MTAG are its low production cost, its ability to derive all required power for basic functions from outside sources and thus avoid the needfor batteries, and its modular architecture which facilitates upgrades and improvements as technology advances occur.InHand will perform a complete system, hardware, and packaging design of the MTAG in Phase I, and will perform detailed manufacturability analyses, including cost estimates in low- and high-volume production. The Phase I design will form the launchingpoint for Phase II prototyping and design refinement.