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Bar Codes vs. RFID: A Battle Just Beginning
October 2006
S Gerald Sandler, M.D., has used both bar codes and radio frequency identification technology during his research on ways to effectively automate the blood transfusion process. Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, where Sandler serves as director of transfusion medicine, has conducted studies using both technologies. When asked to compare the two, Sandler says RFID is the winner.
"Bedside verification of patients and their blood components can be performed more efficiently using RFID-encoded wristbands and cross-match labels," says Sandler, who's also a professor of medicine and pathology at Georgetown University. "RFID labels are easier to read than bar codes."
Financial constraints, however, likely will prevent Sandler from using RFID outside of the research phase. Bar code applications, even the more expensive two-dimensional systems, are much cheaper than RFID technology. As a result, Georgetown likely will invest in 2D bar codes to verify blood transfusions and track medication administration, he says.
The two technologies-more specifically, bar codes and "passive" RFID-are starting to intersect in some areas, such as medication administration and patient tracking, among other applications. As a result, CIOs and I.T. decision makers increasingly can choose between the two.
RFID tags and bar codes both are scanned to pass along identifiable data to an automated system. But the technologies differ significantly.
Bar codes come in two flavors, linear or two-dimensional. Linear codes store short bits of data in the widths and spacings of parallel lines. Two-dimensional bar codes are square shaped and can store up to several lines of text multiple times within their image.
Both types of bar codes need a clear line of sight to be read, and they require a person using a handheld scanner to retrieve the information contained on the code. Two-dimensional bar codes are easier to read because a scanner need only hit a small area of the entire code to get a full reading, whereas the entire horizontal line of a linear code must be scanned.
RFID comes in two forms, active and passive. For an active system, radio frequency antennas are installed on walls and ceilings. Active RFID tags contain batteries that continuously send their information to radio frequency readers in the installed antennas. Passive systems use tags that are read by handheld RF scanners similar to bar code scanners.
RFID tags used by both systems contain microchips that can store more information than bar codes, and the tags do not require a direct line of sight to be "read" by the RF devices.
The bar codes vs. RFID debate primarily comes down to the two types of bar coding systems vs. passive RFID because bar code systems have no comparable functionality to active RFID technology.
At this point in the race, RFID's superior functionality-no line of sight required-is often being trumped by the convenience and lower cost of bar code systems, experts say.
Passive RFID tags often cost $1 or more each, and the handheld readers are more expensive than comparable handheld bar code readers.
Bar codes also are already affixed by manufacturers and suppliers to items such as medications and blood bags.
In addition, many health care organizations are not convinced that RFID is a mature technology, and are hesitant to commit the time and resources to incorporate it into their I.T. operations, says Paul Mathans, manager of RFID solutions at BearingPoint Inc., a McLean, Va.-based consulting firm.
However, the bar code vs. RFID debate is just heating up, Mathans says. "There still will be more bar codes than RFID tags in 2007," he says. "RFID hasn't been out there long enough. But it's coming along rapidly."
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