Which technologies do you consult on?

All of the major location, identification and IoT technologies: RTLS (UWB, BLE, Wi-Fi), RFID (passive, active and RAIN UHF), industrial IoT and sensors, GPS and GNSS, AGV and AMR robot fleets, and hybrid stacks that combine them. We recommend the right mix for each zone and use case, not a single technology.

Are you really vendor-neutral?

Yes. We do not sell hardware or a software platform of our own, and we take no resale commissions, so our technology and vendor recommendations serve your outcome rather than a product we need to move.

Do you work outside the UK?

We are UK-based and work across Europe and internationally, delivering in English, German and French. Engagements can be remote or on-site depending on the work.

What does a consulting engagement include?

Typically discovery and requirements, vendor-neutral technology selection, vendor evaluation and RFP support, ROI and business case, solution architecture, and an implementation roadmap. We scope each engagement to where you are.

Can you help after the decision is made?

Yes. We work across the full lifecycle - we can also deploy, integrate, and operate the system, so you can keep one independent team from business case through to live operation.

How do we get started?

Usually with a short call or a fixed-fee discovery to scope the problem, followed by a proposal with clear deliverables, timeline and fees. There is no obligation and no platform pitch.

Which is better for infant protection — BLE-AoA or UWB?

Both work. BLE-AoA-based Quuppa solutions are mainstream. UWB pulls ahead in very dense labour-and-delivery units where sub-decimetre certainty at the bed level matters. Most deployments are BLE-AoA.

Will my existing Wi-Fi APs work for RTLS?

Most hospital Wi-Fi (Cisco, Aruba) supports BLE positioning at room level — not sub-metre AoA. Sub-metre needs purpose-built BLE-AoA Locators (Quuppa) or upgraded AP models. We size the right architecture in stage 1.

Does CenTrak use BLE-AoA or UWB?

CenTrak uses a proprietary multi-tech stack — low-frequency RF for certainty, BLE and Wi-Fi for broader visibility. It's neither purely BLE-AoA nor UWB, but a hospital-optimised hybrid.

How does this integrate with our EMR (Epic / Cerner)?

Through HL7 v2 / FHIR and vendor-specific APIs into Epic Rover and Cerner location services. We design EMR integration in stage 1 — see /integrations/epic and /integrations/cerner-oracle-health.

What's the right deployment sequence?

Typically: phase 1, broad RTLS coverage (BLE-AoA or multi-tech) for asset finding and workflow; phase 2, add high-acuity zones (UWB or ultrasound) for hand-hygiene attribution, infant protection, surgical-instrument tracking. We define phases in stage 1 of /method.

COMPARAÇÃO · SAÚDE

BLE - AoA vs UWB para saúde RTLS — o que se encaixa.

BLE-AoA and UWB are the two leading RTLS technologies for hospital deployments — clinical workflow, infant protection, hand-hygiene compliance, asset finding, patient elopement prevention.

The accuracy needed varies dramatically by use case, and the right choice is rarely "the more accurate one". This is the operator-level comparison for clinical engineering and IT teams choosing between them.

Agende uma ligação de 30 minutos para definir o escopo

A hierarquia de precisão na saúde

Hospital use cases stack at different accuracy tiers. Room-level: asset finding, broad workflow attribution, patient location for billing. Bed-level: infant protection, equipment association with patient, fall prevention, medication-administration record matching.

Sub-decimetre: hand-hygiene compliance with confirmed point-of-care attribution, surgical-instrument tracking. UWB delivers all three. BLE-AoA delivers room and bed comfortably; sub-decimetre is harder but possible in dense deployments.

Gerenciamento de bateria de etiquetas — o fator decisivo operacional

Hospitals have hundreds to thousands of tagged staff, patients, beds and assets. BLE-AoA tags: 2–5 years on a coin cell. UWB tags: months to two years depending on update rate.

For a hospital fleet of 3,000 active tags, BLE-AoA's longer battery life reduces operational burden by 10× or more. Many large hospitals reject UWB on operational-overhead grounds even when accuracy is competitive.

Ajuste ao caso de uso

BLE-AoA wins: most asset tracking; clinical workflow attribution; bed-level infant protection (Quuppa-based systems are mainstream); broad hand-hygiene at room-level; equipment-utilisation analytics.

UWB wins: sub-decimetre hand-hygiene with confirmed point-of-care; surgical-instrument tracking; critical-care patient location with millisecond latency; high-density labour-and-delivery infant tagging.

Most hospital deployments mix both — UWB in the few zones that need it, BLE-AoA everywhere else.

Cenário de fornecedores na área da saúde

BLE-AoA / multi-tech healthcare RTLS: Quuppa (BLE-AoA underlay), CenTrak (multi-tech: low-frequency RF + BLE + Wi-Fi; market leader in hospital RTLS), Stanley AeroScout (Wi-Fi based, healthcare-specific), Sonitor (ultrasound for bed-level certainty), Midmark RTLS.

UWB healthcare: BeWhere, Sewio (industrial-leaning but used in hospitals), Decawave-platform vendors. Most large hospital RTLS deployments are CenTrak or Stanley AeroScout for the broad footprint, with UWB or ultrasound for the few zones needing sub-decimetre.

EMR e integração clínica

Both ecosystems integrate into Epic, Cerner / Oracle Health, Meditech, Allscripts via standard interfaces (HL7 v2, FHIR, vendor-specific APIs).

Clinical workflow attribution ("who saw which patient when") requires correlating tag events with appointment data — the integration architecture matters more than the underlying radio.

We design integration in stage 1 — see /integrations/epic and /integrations/cerner-oracle-health.

Onde o TRACIO recomenda cada um

Default to BLE-AoA for new hospital RTLS deployments where broad coverage matters: asset finding, workflow, infant protection, room-level hand hygiene. The operational advantage of multi-year battery life is decisive at hospital scale.

Add UWB in specific zones where sub-decimetre accuracy is non-negotiable: high-acuity hand hygiene with confirmed POC, surgical-instrument tracking, critical-care location.

Consider multi-tech RTLS (CenTrak, Stanley AeroScout) when you want a single platform vendor covering the full breadth — accepting that no single radio does everything optimally.

FAQ

Perguntas frequentes

Qual é melhor para proteção infantil — BLE - AoA ou UWB?

Ambos funcionam. BLE - Soluções AoA baseadas em Quuppa são comuns. O UWB lidera em unidades de parto e parto muito densas, onde a certeza sub-decimétrica no nível da cama é importante. A maioria das implantações é BLE - AoA.

Meus APs Wi-Fi atuais funcionam para RTLS?

A maioria dos Wi-Fi hospitalares (Cisco, Aruba) suporta posicionamento BLE no nível da sala — não em AoA abaixo do metro. O submetro precisa de localizadores BLE - AoA (Quuppa) ou modelos AP atualizados para esse propósito. Dimensionamos a arquitetura certa na fase 1.

A CenTrak usa BLE - AoA ou UWB?

O CenTrak utiliza uma pilha multitecnologia proprietária — RF de baixa frequência para certeza, BLE e Wi-Fi para maior visibilidade. Não é puramente BLE - AoA nem UWB, mas um híbrido otimizado para hospital.

Como isso se integra com nosso EMR (Epic / Cerner)?

Por meio do HL7 v2 / FHIR e APIs específicas de fornecedores para Epic Rover e serviços de localização do Cerner. Projetamos integração de EMR na fase 1 — veja /integrations/epic e /integrations/cerner-oracle-health.

Qual é a sequência correta de implantação?

Tipicamente: fase 1, ampla cobertura RTLS (BLE - AoA ou multi-tecnologia) para busca de ativos e fluxo de trabalho;

fase 2, adicionar zonas de alta acuidade (UWB ou ultrassom) para atribuição de higiene das mãos, proteção infantil, rastreamento de instrumentos cirúrgicos. Definimos fases na etapa 1 do /método.

Última atualização: 26 de maio de 2026