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July 22, 2006
VeriChip RFID implants for the chronically ill - Test begins
Are you a chronic heart patient or perhaps a diabetic? You now have the opportunity to decide on whether you want a radio frequency ID implanted into your arm. The implant will help the hospital read your EHR even though you are unconcious and alone in an emergency!
Well, it is possible nowadays and a hospital is looking for volunteers from their patients. The implant is free of cost and the chip itself will not contain the records, but the 16-digit number obtained by reading the chip with an RFID reader can be linked to the existing health records at the hospital.
Making a foray into this unchartered territory is the Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ and it's voulunteering patients. The patients being considered suffer from chronic conditions like heart disease, epilepsy, diabetes or are recent recipients of organs. They will have the RFID chips, the size of a grain of rice, implanted above their right elbow.
The RFID chips being used are from VeriChip. Hackensack University Medical Center and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey are asking patients to volunteer for a two-year program that will test "personal health record modules" inserted just beneath their skin. The passive chips will contain a 16-digit number that, when scanned at the medical center, will link them to their electronic patient record.
The electronic health record (EHR) that is linked to the 16-digit number in the tag will contain:
1. Family contact information 2. Recent lab test results 3. Pharmacy prescription information and 4. Medical information from the records of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (HBCBSNJ), the health insurer that is carrying out the trial.
Dr Richard Popiel, vice president and chief medical officer, HBCBSNJ, said: "This two-year collaboration with Hackensack University Medical Center, its physicians and VeriChip will provide cutting-edge technologies that will hopefully save lives and provide measure of comfort to our members with chronic conditions and to their families."
Great boost for RFID technology but there are sceptics and the general publc are not really warming up to the idea of implants except for a few RFID champions who put tags in their bodies. But, for the chronically ill, the implants could be a life saver!
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Comments
This will truly save lives.Why will it take 2 yrs to test it?
Posted by: Tim Lowe | Jul 24, 2006 4:43:26 AM
This is first large scale test ever and patients need to be monitored for any medical complications that may or may not happen! Privacy questions also need to be addressed - Hence the two-year test.
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