Fujitsu and Sapporo Shirakaba-dai Hospital have worked together to produce e-paper patient badges which for now they are currently aiming at just providing medical information as well as a queue number so patients will know when it is their turn, and will also help guide patients to the relevant rooms. The technology makes uses of Fujitsu’s wireless communications technologies which means patients will have the freedom of moving about the hospital as long as they are in range, rather than sitting in one room slowly awaiting their turn.
Thanks to the low powered e-paper screen the device will be able to last up to a week on a single charge. Apart from just providing medical data and queue numbers, the Sapporo Shirakaba-dai Hospital has other plans for the device in the future and for starters they hope that it would help to simplify the registration process by inserting an IC-equipped registration card which would automatically link to the patients’s medical records, thus completely the registration rather effortlessly.
They are also hoping that by using e-paper rather than regular paper that they are providing a “green” solution, since the device will be running on low powered e-paper as well as its ability to be used in multiple scenarios and convey detailed information all on one device. Almost makes you want to get checked into the hospital just to see it in action.