FDA Approves Implantable RFID for Patients

anzha writes "It seems that the FDA has approved an RFID tag for use in patients. The idea being that the rice grain sized chip would be implanted and scanned for patient history and updates. It seems that a similar chip was used by the Mexican government for employees that work with sensitive documents. IDK about you, but this seems a to me little...creepy."

Comments

Re:Patents and security?

[erick99]

The implant only has a key that can unlock your records within the doctor's office database or the hospital. The RFID tag itself does not contain any medical records. The tag also acts as the equivalent of a UPC code. This might reduce or eliminate the kind of errors where you are thought to be patient B who is getting a leg amputated where you are really patient Z getting your tonsils out. So, there are some fantastically good things that this technology achieves. The privacy concerns are valid but this kind of technology is going to come into use sooner or later so we might as well prepare for it in such a way that privacy issues are addressed up front and appropriately.