Research and Markets announced the addition of “RFID as an eHealth Platform” to its offering. Most of the controversy surrounding the deployment of RFID is centered on the technology's impact on the privacy of the consumer. However, RFID also represents a threat to retailers who are deploying the technology in customer-facing applications.

On-line services such as dietary guidance and food allergy alerts, which employed mobile handsets fitted with RFID scanners to access information relating to products on sale in food stores, could be run over conventional mobile phone networks.

While retailers may not want a third party to overlay an alternative database over their business, RFID technology could open up a store’s operation to a range of on-line organizations. Some of the services provided by these organizations might be relatively benign others, such as ethical shopping and Kelkoo-type price comparators, could prove disruptive to the retailer’s business model.

Today, consumer groups are voicing concerns over the deployment of item-level RFID tagging, but attitudes will change if shoppers find they can use RFID to access useful product data -- especially if this access is via a relatively low-cost mobile device.

This report examines the threats and opportunities confronting retailers and ehealth providers as customer facing RFID applications are rolled out. It also profiles the vendors who have technology that could be used to build an RFID-based mobile healthcare platform.

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