An infusion data communication system provides a communication link among afluid container, an infusion pump, and a patient through which identificationdata may be communicated. Data devices are located at the fluid container andthe patient and conduct low frequency RF energy at a low power levelcontaining the data into the medical fluid. The data-laden RF energypropagates through the medication fluid to data readers at the infusion pumpwhich receives the RF energy and reads the data. A comparison is made toverify that the right medication is mounted to the infusion pump foradministration to the right patient. RFID devices may be used for the datadevices and readers. Pump programming data may also be propagated to theinfusion pump from the container RFID tag. The RFID device at the patient maybe writable and may be used to store a patient MAR.
