NFC tags-based notification system for medical appointments

Abstract

In clinics and hospitals, whenever a patient visits a doctor, usually he arranges an appointment for his next visit. It can be quite difficult for some patients to keep track of these appointments, especially if they're irregular and widely spaced. Failure of the patient to keep the appointment is disruptive to the doctor's schedule. This paper adapts Near Field Communication (NFC) tags to automatically create alarms and notifications in the patient's NFC-enabled devices (tablet, cell phone, etc.). In the process, the physician or physician's assistant enters the appointment data to a database. This information is then wirelessly sent to the tag via an NFC read/write device. The patient then touches his NFC-enabled device against the tag to create notifications in the device.