Privacy Digest

RFID gets under patients' skin | Australian IT: "DOCTORS could soon be storing essential medical information under the skin of their patients, the American Medical Association says.

Devices the size of a grain of rice that are implanted with a needle could give emergency room doctors quick access to the records of chronically ill patients, the US's largest doctors group says in a report.

The association approved their use to improve the 'safety and efficiency of patient care' by helping to identify patients and enabling secure access to clinical information.

These radio frequency identification tags are already used by Wal-Mart and other businesses to speed up their shipping systems by sending out small signals that can be scanned more easily than barcodes.

Implanting them in people 'can improve the continuity and co-ordination of care with resulting reductions in adverse drug events and other medical errors,' the report says.

The devices, however, 'also may pose some physical risks, compromise patient privacy, or present other social hazards', the report says.

The main concern is protecting the privacy of the information stored on the devices. There are also health concerns.

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