Existing methods for implant identification suffer from several drawbacks. First, the information is not stored on the implant but somewhere else, which can raise the risk of data loss or counterfeiting. Second, most hospitals use paper based archives to keep the patient history whose management is a huge cost. Third, it takes much time to search for the implant and patient information, which does not only increase the risk of mistakes but also increases the cost. Aiming at providing an efficient and accurate way for orthopedic implant identification to reduce time and cost, a method of using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, a wire- less radio frequency communication technology, for orthopedic implant identification has been proposed.
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