In the forthcoming August issue of Healthcare IT News, we'll report on the myriad and growing applications for radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Those tiny, inexpensive chips can enable everything from asset tracking and patient security to bed management and sanitation compliance. There's even research being done – by Delray Beach, Fla.-based Positive ID – into putting RFIDs to use as implantable glucose monitors for diabetics.

And there are many more uses besides those. Cambridge, Mass.-based RFID maker ThingMagic has recently sought to make that point as it highlights 100 different uses of radio frequency technology in 100 days.

"For as little as eight cents per tag in quantities of five million units, one can obtain Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags that need no batteries and can report their unique identity to a reader 50 feet away," the company writes in a recent white paper. "Simply put, batteryless (also called passive) tags enable the rapid and precise measurement of almost every operation in the healthcare setting.”

From practical uses like surgical safety and medication management to more fanciful applications, such as customizing hospital environments – temperature, lighting, music – according to patient preferences, RFID chips are among the least expensive and most potentially transformative areas of healthcare IT. And with more and more companies joining the market they only stand to become more ubiquitous in the coming years.

Follow along at rfid.thingmagic.com or by using the #RFID100 hash tag on Twitter.