We take for it granted that technology can be used to tag objects in various ways, useful and otherwise. The anti-theft devices used on retail clothing stores are a familiar example. Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) are used for this purpose as well as for security access. I have a device like that on my windshield for automatic highway tolls on the turnpike. Hospitals also have a strong interest in keeping track of lots of items like pharmaceuticals, equipment or even ordinary sponges used in surgery. Counting and keeping track of sponges is routine so none are inadvertently left in the patient. Tagging sponges with little RFIDs is just one obvious use. But a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA. 2008;299(24):2884-2890) by a group of Dutch researchers raises some serious questions about indiscriminate RFID use in the high tech hospital setting:

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