[LINK] RFID Implant for Medical Trial

[Geoff Ramadan]

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2496/1/1/

Insurer Running VeriChip Trial
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is inviting chronically ill 
policyholders to participate in a two-year trial to test implanted RFID tags.


July 17, 2006—Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent 
licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is initiating a two-year 
clinical trial to test the use of an implantable RFID tag, the VeriChip, to 
access the medical records of chronically ill patients. If a patient 
participating in the trial is admitted to the emergency room at New Jersey's 
Hackensack Medical Center, staff there will use a handheld reader (interrogator) 
to read the tag's 16-digit ID and call up the patient's medical files in a database.

The tags, readers and database comprise the VeriMed system marketed by VeriChip 
Corp., based in Delray Beach, Fla. The system is designed to ensure that 
health-care workers access important health records, such as preexisting 
conditions or drug allergies, even if the patient cannot communicate his or her 
name or other important details. The insurance company is holding the trial to 
see if VeriMed works—and if it can reduce costs associated with misdiagnoses, 
drug reactions and duplicated or unnecessary medical tests.

Horizon is inviting 600 of its chronically ill policyholders to participate in 
the trial, and hopes 280 will actually enroll. Horizon will cover the $200 fee 
that individuals must pay to have the tag implanted, as well as the $80 monthly 
subscription. Typically, the service changes $20 per month for patients to 
record just their name, family and physician contact info, and a list of 
allergies and directives regarding organ donations and resuscitation. The 
monthly cost is $80 per month for those who record preexisting medical 
conditions, information about prior surgeries and pharmaceutical information.

If the trial proves successful in reducing costs and improving the medical care 
patients receive at Hackensack, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey 
might offer coverage of the implant and VeriMed service for its chronically ill 
policyholders on a permanent basis, says Tom Rubino, Horizon's director of 
public affairs. The firm insures patients at almost every hospital in New 
Jersey, he explains. At present, seven New Jersey hospitals—Beth Israel, Clara 
Maass, Columbus, Hackensack, Kimball, Newark, Ocean and PBI Regional—are all 
equipped to read the tags and access the VeriMed database.

"The way we see it," Rubino says, "[VeriMed] might save Horizon costs because it 
could help doctors avoid drug interactions or wrong diagnoses that lead to 
longer hospital stays. People who have chronic diseases might not be able to 
communicate their medical history [while being admitted]."

The policyholders Horizon is asking to participate in the trial suffer from such 
diseases as diabetes, epilepsy and heart disease. Those who wish to have the 
VeriChip removed once the trial is complete will be able to do so. Participants 
will also be allowed to review and approve medical data associated with their 
VeriChip ID in the VeriMed database, which will include information about their 
medical condition and history, as well as lab test data and pharmaceutical 
information maintained by Horizon. While communication between the VeriChip and 
interrogator is not protected by data encryption, a password or other security 
methods, users do need a password, unique for each tag ID, to access the VeriMed 
database via the Internet and retrieve patient information.

VeriChip Corp.'s implantable tag is roughly the size of a grain of rice. The 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the tag for human use in 2004. 
The passive transponders transmit their IDs by means of a 134 kHz signal, and 
can be read up to 6 inches from a patient's upper arm, where the tag is inserted


-- 
Regards

Geoffrey Ramadan, B.E.(Elec)
Chairman, Automatic Data Capture Association (www.adca.com.au)
and
Managing Director, Unique Micro Design (www.umd.com.au)