Defibrillators

When supplies arrive at the hospital, workers program the tags with the information about the product and attach the tag to the item's packaging.

Not Quite the Fridge In many ways, the cabinets are the real-world implementation of the RFID-enabled refrigerators that have been talked about for years by "smart home" enthusiasts.

Instead of tracking your milk, eggs and chocolate pudding, these cabinets are being used to alert hospital workers when it's time to buy more US$5,000 stents and other lifesaving supplies.

The system also makes it quick and easy to match a device with a patient.

"There are tremendous benefits from the physician's standpoint and the patient safety standpoint because there is a true tracking process for devices that may be potentially recalled," Valentine said.

"Prior to that, we had kind of a manual process that was done, and we had a lot of man-hours being utilized in the tracking process." For example, when a manufacturer alerts the hospital that there's been a recall on a certain type of defibrillator, a hospital worker can type in the model number of the device, and the data from the cabinets will show how many of those The system isn't cheap...

Real-world medical technology gives these shows an authentic look.

So they welcome or even solicit makers of medical devices to lend the expensive machines – or at least their exteriors – at no cost.

“These relationships are basically win-win because these productions need the props, and this helps us to build awareness of our brand,” says Brent Shafer, the North American CEO of Philips Medical Systems, which employs nearly 2,000 people in the Seattle area.

“In the medical community, we’re well known.

But the average consumer might not know Philips is in medical technology.” Philips has used Creative Entertainment Services, a product placement firm near Hollywood, to help it get equipment onto the sets of not only Grey’s Anatomy, which is set in Seattle, but also House, M.D., CSI and other TV programs, as well as in films, such as Fever Pitch and Man of the Year.

SonoSite has placed its next-generation ultrasound machines on ER for years.

At times, the show’s characters have uttered lines using SonoSite’s name as a verb, just like Xerox or Google.

“We’re able to put our systems into an environment where people can see them being used in critical and innovative ways,” says Brad Williamson, SonoSite’s global director of emergency medicine, of the TV appearances.

He adds that his company’s devices also have appeared on Grey’s Anatomy.

SonoSite’s ER exposure i...