Temporary skin tattoos for patient identification

After our last post about an adverse event due to patient identification wristband i think is mandatory work on an alternative and better system.

As you may know i love technology and i share a lot of articles about innovations on healthcare. On the last year wearables was a main topic; made from a mix of nanocomponents(1) and new materials they promised us a "permanent" monitorization of vital signs beyond hospital walls thanks to wireless connectivity(2).

In patient identification RFID is an eternal promise a decade ago but is far from our reality, it can lead to automated systems of record and traceability but we are tired of waiting.

We need a easy cheap and practical solution now.

Yesterday in the loneliness of the swimming pool i remembered the "calcomanías" that i used to wear when i was child. It was a one picture temporary tattoo for adhere to skin easy to use, only needed some water.

Now i search about it and i find it is now a fashion and there are a do it yourself system without water to adhere to skin. They are called "tattoonies" and have a limited duration from two to seven days and are easy to remove with alcohol or acetone.

With or without barcode or other technology inside i think is a good idea for patient identifier, i know there are some risk of skin reactions but healthcare and socialcare systems needs a solution for these issue.

Head don't stop

Referrals:

1)Zucca A, Cipriani C, Sudha null, Tarantino S, Ricci D, Mattoli V, et al. Tattoo conductive polymer nanosheets for skin-contact applications. Adv Healthc Mater. mayo de 2015;4(7):983-90.

2)Bandodkar AJ, Molinnus D, Mirza O, Guinovart T, Windmiller JR, Valdés-Ramírez G, et al. Epidermal tattoo potentiometric sodium sensors with wireless signal transduction for continuous non-invasive sweat monitoring. Biosens Bioelectron. 15 de abril de 2014;54:603-9.