Near field communication for pharmacy medication information / Halimi Abdullah

Near Field Communication (NFC) is base on technology from Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID). NFC use shorter range communication between 3 cm to 10 cm and also use lower radio frequency at 13.56 MHz. Since 2010 when NFC was integrated into mobile phone the use of NFC technology become widens. This paper presents experimentally the use of NFC for pharmaceutical outlet to assist customer starting at the entrance of the premise till getting consultation from the pharmacist. NFC helps the customer navigating around the premise base on map that had been push to customer NFC mobile device. Every single cabinet in the premise also tag with NFC to share information regarding with the item available. Consultation with pharmacist becomes easier when all necessary information relating to medicine can be share between pharmacist and customer using their NFC mobile device. All of this approach will reduce the time of customer find their need and they also can get proper information and consultation from the pharmacist. Proper medication labelling also can reduce medication error that can affect patient health. The result of the study also suggested that a larger memory size of NFC tag for future research for sharing more medication information to the patient. It is hope that the study can contribute to the improvement of accessing information in pharmacy and also enhance sharing process of medication information between patient and pharmacist.