Search

EP-4427720-B1 - WIRELESS IDENTIFICATION NEEDLE FOR ACUPUNCTURE

EP4427720B1EP 4427720 B1EP4427720 B1EP 4427720B1EP-4427720-B1

Inventors

  • PAI, TUNG-SHENG

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240118

Claims (5)

  1. A wireless identification needle (1), comprising: an acupuncture needle (10) comprising a needle body (11), a needle tip (12) provided at a front end of the needle body (11), and a needle handle (13) provided at a rear end of the needle body (11); and an electronic tag (40) comprising a substrate (41) indirectly connected with the needle handle (13), an antenna (42) disposed with the substrate (41) and provided with two ends (422), and a radio frequency identification chip (43) electrically connected with the two ends (422) of the antenna (42), wherein the substrate (41) is wrapped around an outer circumference of the needle handle (13); the wireless identification needle (1) being characterized in comprising an expansion sleeve (30) disposed between the needle handle (13) and the substrate (41); the expansion sleeve (30) has a sleeve hole (32) into which the needle handle (13) extends; the substrate (41) covers an outer circumference (310) of the expansion sleeve (30).
  2. The wireless identification needle (1) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the needle handle (13) has an outer diameter greater than an outer diameter of the needle body (11).
  3. The wireless identification needle (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 2, characterized in further comprising a patch (52) covering at least one lateral edge (415) of the substrate (41).
  4. The wireless identification needle (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in further comprising a protective sheath (50) encasing the electronic tag (40).
  5. The wireless identification needle (1) as claimed in any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the electronic tag (40) has a cross-sectional circumferential length greater than a cross-sectional circumferential length of the needle handle (13).

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to a wireless identification needle. 2. Description of the Related Art Nowadays, medical institutions continuously strive to improve healthcare quality to avoid the occurrences of medical negligence and errors. Unfortunately, medical negligence and errors are still inevitable. Therefore, patient safety has always been an important issue for the World Health Organization (WHO) and healthcare service systems of many countries. The scope of acupuncture treatment covers many aspects, including digestive system disorders, endocrine and metabolic diseases, gynecological issues, neurological and psychiatric disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, etc. Acupuncture treatment involves inserting needles into subcutaneous tissue or muscles at specific areas of the human body to treat various diseases or relieve pain. Since the acupuncture needle needs to be in direct contact with internal tissue of the human body, the hygiene and safety of the acupuncture needle itself is very important. Insufficient hygiene of the needle may lead to unnecessary pathogen infections, causing secondary harm and posing a risk of hospital-acquired infections. Further, medical accidents caused by leaving needles inside the human body may occur from time to time. To avoid reuse of disposable needles, the management task of taking back, counting, and discarding the used needles are extremely important. Conventional disposable acupuncture needles are typically made of stainless-steel material, having extremely fine needle bodies. Even in the handle area, the diameter is usually only around 1.2 millimeters. This poses a technical challenge for fixedly attaching a radio frequency identification (hereinafter referred to as "RFID") electronic tag to the needle. Particularly, when attempting to achieve the goal of long-distance identifying multiple acupuncture needles to enhance identification efficiency, the aforesaid goal may be difficultly achieved by using an ultrahigh frequency (UHF) RFID technology because the limitations of needle configuration and space are liable to result in the difficulty of constructing a UHF RFID antenna and the occurrence of the metal interference of the transmission and receipt of the antenna electromagnetic signal. KR20100096594 A discloses an electric needle treatment apparatus, which can effectively control each electric needle used to treatment of the electric needle. comprising: a prong piercing the human body; an RFID tag chip in which the RFID tag information is recorded; a handle part which is formed in the outer circumference and includes an antenna recognizing the RFID tag information; a body portion interlinking the prong and handle part; an RFID read part deciphering the RFID tag information from the electric needle; a treatment performance data generating part generating treatment performance data according to RFID tag information of the electric needle using RFID tag information and treatment environment information; and a controller controlling the operation of the electric needle. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-noted circumstances. It is an objective of the present invention to provide a wireless identification needle, which has a stable structure, can reduce metal interference, and possess the capability of long-distance identification. To attain the above-mentioned objective, the present invention provides a wireless identification needle comprising an acupuncture needle and an electronic tag. The acupuncture needle includes a needle body, a needle tip provided at a front end of the needle body, and a needle handle provided at a rear end of the needle body. The electronic tag includes a substrate directly or indirectly connected with the needle handle, an antenna disposed with the substrate, and a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip electrically connected with two ends of the antenna. As a result, the wireless identification needle has a table structure, a reduced metal interference, and a long-distance identification capability. The invention is defined by the appended claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wireless identification needle in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the wireless identification needle of the first embodiment of the present invention;FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the wireless identification needle of the first embodiment of the present invention;FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of an electronic tag of the wireless identification needle of the first embodiment of t