Technology Forecasting: Case Of Rfid Technology

Technology in Healthcare sector is undergoing a fast growth compared other sectors due to the opportunity for improvement. Among the few emerging technologies implemented in hospitals Radio frequency identification (RFID) is considered to be a prominent technology. Even though RFID has been applied successfully in various sectors like retail, manufacturing etc., the adoption pattern in hospitals differs because of factors like hospital application, risk, privacy and security. This chapter's objective is to determine the adoption pattern of RFID in Healthcare considering such factors. The objective has achieved by using technology forecasting methods. The first part of the chapter helps understanding the application of RFID in hospitals and provides insight into technology forecasting methods. Second part of the chapter explains the execution of the methods with analysis and results derived considering RFID application in hospitals. In general this chapter provides an insight towards application of RFID technology in hospitals and opens up potential options which require further research to improve application of similar technologies in healthcare.