The video below is of me playing on the Surface wall. Based on my experience I’ve decided that I need one of these in my house. I have just the spot for it. Now if I could only convince my wife of the same thing.

Technology Review: “Later this year, Philips will introduce a handheld electronic device that uses magnetic nanoparticles to screen for five major recreational drugs. The device is intended for roadside use by law enforcement agencies and includes a disposable plastic cartridge and a handheld analyzer. The cartridge has two components: a sample collector for gathering saliva and a measurement chamber containing magnetic nanoparticles. The particles are coated with ligands that bind to one of five different drug groups: cocaine, heroin, cannabis, amphetamine, and methamphetamine.” – When bound to the offending drug, the ligands – dig out the chemistry books everyone – will delivery a color coded test result in about 90 seconds. Philips has been working on the technology since 2001 and hopes to begin shipping the devices later this year. That’s some pretty cool technology.

Radio-frequency identification

RFID refers to small electronic devices that consist of a small chip and an antenna. They are capable of carrying quite a bit of information. To retrieve the information an RFID device must be scanned much like a barcode. While barcodes require a “line of sight” to be recognized by the scanner RFID labels can be scanned independent of position relative to the scanner and may be read up to 20 feet (or more) away.

RFID is an interesting alternative to barcoding for medication tracking and administration. The advantages are their ability to carry increased amounts of information and the relative ease of scanning mentioned above. It is unclear why RFID hasn’t become more main stream, but one reason could be the relative cost when compared to a traditional barcoding system. RFID would certainly make tracking inventory a little easier.

The printer pictured here is the Zebra R110Xi RFID Printer. For more information about Zebra RFID printers, as well as other RFID products, visit IDAutomation.com.

The five-unit acute-care hospital chain and supplier of 11 neighborhood clinics is in the process of providing 1,000 thin clients to end-user end points, such as nursing stations, clinic treatment centers, and 50 physician offices. With three shifts a day, most end points have three different users every 24 hours, noted Brian Cox, director of IT customer services.

With VMware view set up, Cox has been able to let doctors and nurses move around the hospital and still access their desktop from the closest thin client, often at the nursing station of a wing instead of having to go back to their own desks. Their desktops can be called up from any location and used to enter patient information or look up patient records.” – Thin clients can be a useful piece of hardware in a hospital setting and I’ve touched on them before. The article doesn’t make it absolutely clear, but your personal desktop actually follows you around regardless of what machine you use to log on. Thin clients are also easier to manage and maintain than traditional desktop PCs from an IT standpoint. I realize this is not cloud computing, however it’s the same basic idea on a small, internalized scale.

From the Pixel Qi website: “The readability and legibility of our new screens rival the best epaper available today.  What’s new about our screens: fast video rate update (refresh), and fully saturated color at low pricing because we use standard manufacturing materials, processes and factories.  Our screens use 1/2 to 1/4 the power of a regular LCD screen, and when integrated carefully with the device can increase battery life between charges by 5-fold. You can use our screens in laptops outside in bright sunlight.  Look for this dramatic power savings in 2010, in 2009 we are focused on being a run-in change into the existing electronics in netbooks and ebook readers.”

Two other videos worth watching are here and here. There’s also an interesting article in Time that’s worth reading.

My love of e-ink technology is no surprise to anyone that knows me and I must say that this information is very exciting. This new technology provides options that I’ve been craving for a long time, an epaper format on a fully functional machine. One can only imagine the usefulness of a machine with three to four times the battery life of currently available laptops and less eye strain. I for one can’t wait to see this new LCD technology on a commercial scale. Replace the current screen in the MacBook Air with Pixel Qi’s new LCD screen and you might just have the perfect business machine.

I can see additional application for this technology in acute care pharmacy as well. One of our biggest issues with existing tablet PCs is battery life. Our decentralized model puts pharmacists at the patient bedside where they use tablet PCs to access patient information such as current drug regimens, labs, physician notes, etc. The tablets have become a valuable tool for pharmacists, but require frequent charging due to heavy use. Extending the battery life by several hours is a very appealing prospect.

This is certainly a glimpse of the future. Regardless of who adopts this screen technology first, they will be the machine on my wish list. Just tell me where to point my credit card.