HIBCC is an accredited global standards development organization that was founded in 1983 to promote patient safety by creating industry-supported non-proprietary standards for healthcare product identification.

The RFID standard was already in early development phases when in June, 2008, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published the results of a study of electromagnetic interference (EMI) with medical equipment and devices in critical care environments from RFID technologies. The study concluded that ultra high frequency (UHF) from RFID and UHF interfered with medical devices in 63% of the tests conducted.