CenTrak

CenTrak is a company that develops and markets real-time locating systems (RTLS) for healthcare facilities. The company is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania and has offices in Menlo Park, California, South Korea, Hong Kong and India.

Company

CenTrak was founded in 2003 by Ari Naim (President and CEO), Gideon Naim (CFO), Israel Amir (CTO), and Karuppiah Annamalai (Vice President of Engineering).

The company initially "developed a way to use radio frequency to measure distance and used it to make security devices that people could attach to such things as briefcases or their children. If a device exceeded a certain distance from its owner," it would make an audible alert. The devices sold successfully at Staples, but the founders "realized that their range-estimation technology could be used to track assets indoors and decided to develop a system that took advantage of that capability."

The company chose to focus on healthcare and sought to overcome the problems of cost, complexity, accuracy and versatility in existing asset-tracking and workflow systems employed in medical settings. In mid-2007, CenTrak successfully deployed their own system at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), tracking hundreds of patients and staff as well as equipment moving through rooms for clinical care. In early 2008, CenTrak released its system commercially, and by summer 2009, the company's systems were deployed in more than 35 medical facilities.

Technology and applications

CenTrak's RTLS system uses its Gen2IR infrared and ACTIVE radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. CenTrak's Gen2IR monitors installed in medical facility rooms collect data from transmissions of RFID badges worn by patients and employees, as well as from tags assigned to facility assets, such as mobile medical devices. The objective of the system is to more efficiently manage patients, more effectively utilize staff, and ensure that medical assets are more easily located and employed.

The CenTrak system is also utilized for tracking hand hygiene compliance in order to reduce health care-associated infections. When a staff member uses a hand-washing station, CenTrak's system logs the action and links it to the individual's unique identifier connected to their badge. If that employee approaches a patient without first sanitizing their hands, that incident is also recorded, which allows management to address any lapses in compliance.

Another application is for monitoring the temperature of medical supplies. A tag, attached to a refrigerator or freezer, will issue an alert if the temperature fluctuates beyond the established safe threshold.