RFID records to be implanted in 280 patients

RFID implant manufacturers VeriChip have announced that 280 patients from the New Jersey area are to have health records chips inserted under their skin as part of a trial into the use of the technology to manage long-term conditions.

Volunteers who are patients of the Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ and who suffer from chronic heart disease, epilepsy, diabetes or are recent recipients of organs, will have the RFID chips, the size of a grain of rice, implanted above their right elbow.

The passive chips will contain a 16-digit number that, when scanned at the medical centre, will link them to their electronic patient record. Patients who present at the emergency room who are unable to identify themselves or provide their medical history are expected to benefit.

The chips themselves 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 centre. These will contain family contact information, recent lab test results, pharmacy prescription information and 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 for 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."

The chips will be provided free-of-charge to patients who sign up to the project, which is being funded by HBCBSNJ. It was not clear at time of publication whether the trial results will be published, but the insurer will use the results of the trial to see whether it should be expanded.

A spokesperson for VeriChip told E-Health Insider that while live implants had been made in patients while the technology was being tested by the Food and Drug Administration, the US body that oversees safe deployment of healthcare technology, this was the first large-scale trial of RFID tags the company is to carry out with a health insurer.

Letters will be sent to patients within the next 30 days inviting them to participate within the trial.

Last year, John Halamka, chief medical officer at Harvard Medical School, had a chip implanted in his arm. While he saw benefits to the implant, he expressed concern that privacy regulations would need to be tightened.

"There are privacy concerns that must be accepted by the implantee… we need to establish standards that permit seamless, secure access to information," he said.

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