A NFC-based Concept for Medication Related Patient Services

A significant increase in the demand for health care products and services results from an ageing society and rising standards of living. Technological advances create the possibility of leveraging technical concepts with new medical services in order to better cater patients' requirements and come up with new business models. This paper develops a technical concept for interactive, decentralized Near Field Communication (NFC) based medication related services using mobile smart devices. NFC is a standard for radio frequency communication between NFC-enabled devices, and allows data exchange between devices that are in close proximity (within a four inch area). We use the design science approach to develop and design the technical concept. Based on the concept, we present an example application (Papp) for mobile smart devices. We first identify problems and opportunities in the application domain of medical services from literature. We then consider existing NFC design methods to model the processes. The proposed technical concept can create value for patients by building a novel application for medication related services. Furthermore, we ensure a higher level of security by using NFC technology, a possibility of avoiding media disruptions, and new business models for firms.