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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."
My grandfathers defib has information stored on it, although I'm not sure its it's RFID.
Repent, the end is near.
I do hope that safeguards are put in place to avoid abuse
You must be new here....
Can't I just keep it in my wallet or embedded in my shoes or on my car keys or something?
I don't care about the advantages, that's some seriously creepy stuff. I'm never eager to jump and say "LOOK! THAT THING/PERSON IS RUNNING AWAY WITH OUR RIGHTS!", but RFIDs still scare me..
Could someone help me out? I don't know what IDK means.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Yes, because if there is one thing the government is good at, it would be respecting peoples privacy and safeguarding personal information.
Biblically speaking, one could draw all types of claims of it being evil. I'm not making these claims, just saying they've been voiced before.
I will claim to have been spoken to by God though:
www.geocities.com/James_Sager_PA/love3.html
God spoke to me
...So I go to hospital, and one of these RFID tags is implanted within me.
Next time I visit doctor/hospital, what restrictions are there on info from "my" tag being read? Two possible options I can see:
- everyone can read my info, and now I have to worry about my health info being scanned by everyone with any remote interest in it. Get on a plane - *SCAN*; "Sorry sir, we believe your heart may give out on this flight and we don't want any lawsuits". Go to a job interview - *SCAN*; "Sorry but we won't employ someone with your health problems"
- nobody can read my info except for readers authorised by the single company controlling the implants. Hmm, now I wonder how they could conceivably abuse that information...
Thanks, but no thanks - I'll take my chances with anonymity. The possibilities of abuse of this technology are just too high
The fundamental potential for abuse is that since some institution now has a unique ID linked to you, somebody with access to the back-end databases will be able to know as much as the databases recorded.
Since the article doesn't say anything about expiry of said RFID tag, all hospitals and other institutions that want to use this technology will need to share your unique ID number amongst everybody, creating a meta-network of information all tracable to YOU.
I for one welcome our new rice grain sized overlords
Just think of all the other wonderful uses once the technology becomes more widely accepted...
No more lines at the airport for people with the chip!
metal detectors augmented with RFID scanning / live reporting / updating tools...
"I'm sorry, sir... you are not allowed on the plane. It says here you use something called Linux, and apparently that's only used for pirating copies of window$, making you a terrorist. This transaction has also just been added to your RFID file. Have a nice day"
This is not the greatest
Problem is that part of the ideals that this country was founded on included the idea that the government was required to leave you alone unless they suspected you of doing something illegal. Giving the government, or any private organization the ability to monitor you (whether at a hospital or not -- for any reason, any place) with a technology that has an immense potential for misuse is quite a scary idea.
That's why the "If you've nothing to hide, you don't need to worry" line doesn't fly with me -- maybe if we lived in communist Russia, it would be a different story -- this is the US, and my freedom is important to me.
By itself, this seems like it could be a great idea with huge potential, but it's another drop in the bucket, if you ask me...
In Soviet Russia, government implant chip in you!
Er... Wait a minute.
I know what's on the bracelet 'cos I can read it.
I know who else is reading my bracelet 'cos they're standing right next to me.
I can remove the bracelet when I go home.
How about an RFID that can be used as a credit card?
It would be so much more convenient than having to carry a credit card, worry about dropping it, or not having it (e.g. you are ordering drinks poolside). One wouldn't need cash either.
Implantation in the hand would be more convenient, one could just wave it over a scanner at a supermarket.
More details available here.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
There is no central healthcare database. Having worked for the largest chain of hospitals in the world (was Columbia, now called HCA), I know firsthand that medical data is not shared between an entire chain of hospitals, let alone hospitals outside of their influence.
So what's the point in having an ID number imbedded in the patient via RFID, or having it tattooed on their forehead, etc, if it does not mean anything outside of a specific hospital or market? How is this better than a patient carrying a Social Security card? The only thing that comes to mind is to help track drug seekers that go from ER to ER. However these aren't exactly the type of people that would volunteer to be tagged like a wild animal.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Yes. And good for him. This kind of technology can prevent people from getting wrong treatments in the hospital because they will not be mis-identified. It may also keep babies from being switched after birth. There are many good uses besides those two. We just need to address privacy issues up front. This is no different, to me, than the availability of printed records that people can access now. These RFID tags only identify you, they do not contain medical records.
http://www.busyweather.com/
our thousands of miles of coast line be dotted every few hundred feet
RFID only transmits a few feet, not a few hundred feet.
Look on the bright side; we'd be able to keep out the Mexican government workers who have security clearances.
Because it's RFID, man! Don't you understand, man, RFID = EVIL!!! If RFID is allowed, the government will track everyone by satellite and send black helicopters to take you off to a concentration camp and anal probe you all because you attended that anti-Bush rally. Then they'll sell your medical information to the national enquirer and all of your friends and neighbors will find out about your hemmoroid problems. Just remember man, RFID = EVIL!!!
For those that think this is a bad thing, don't blame the FDA. The FDA's only job should be to ensure medical safety, that unsafe products don't harm people, not to prevent the abusive use of a product which is not intriniscally bad. It is the use of the product which can be bad. Isn't that the argument you use in stating P2P software should stay legal?
Saying the FDA should ban this technology because it can be abused is like saying they should ban cough syrup because of DXM abuse or that the MPAA should ban Linux DVD software because it can be used by movie pirates, or that the RIAA should be able to ban P2P software because someone could use it to distribute a billion copies of the latest Britney Spears album.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Whatever is created can also be hacked. That's both scary and liberating at the same time. I'm used to incompetence on a daily basis from every person I deal with, from the grocer, to my friendly neighborhood hospital. We're human, and I make mistakes as much as the nex guy. Technology isn't going to solve these problems, but I can see the mistakes being more severe. We're on our way to being slaves to data.. I wonder how close we are to the 20,000 year cycle, and if our number close to being up. Take that as you will ;)
And putting an RFID tag in the bracelet is the right thing to do. You get all the advantages of the RFID and the patient can remove it when they go home.
No freakin implants required.
Have an elderly person around the house? Can't afford to put them in a home? Don't have any relatives who will take him in?
Then get...The invisible leash!
Using the RFID tag in the subject, it locates him or her as he/she makes an escape for freedom, then applies a mild, 30,000 volt shock to gently remind them that you care.
Warning This device may be affected and triggered by many garage door openers, WIFI hot spots, and thunderstorms. Not recomended for those wearing underwire bras, or pacemakers.
I don't exactly remember it, but its close enough. Borrowed from the Bob and Tom radio show
I got this Aluminium bracelet that goes right over the implant!
That would work right up to the MRI. Then it would be slag.
Well, much as this hackles my tin foil hat side, I'll simply say I will be making a microwave gun to cook that sucker if I can't dig it out with an Xacto blade. Heebie Jeebies. 1984 is now.
Drop me a line at:
Key ID: 0x54D1D809
According to the theology of some fundamentalist (and often Republican) Christians, this essentially constitutes the "mark of the Beast."
They consider this to be "evil."
Won't they try to combat it?
Well, no. It's actually the same meaning that it always had =oP
Read the linked article.
It's a unique ID tag. That's ALL.
The chip won't have ANY data other than "who" you are. And to get any additional data you have to link into the hospital records.
And the police don't have a chance of getting in to those records thanks to privacy laws on medical records.
STOP THE FEARMONGERING.
It's a paper bracelet with your name on it. That's all. You just won't lose this one.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
News flash.
Any hospital you've ever visited already has a unique ID (your SSN) linked to you.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
RFID is not the database. It is the userID for the data.
The debate is going on now and both sides keep talking about all the things we are doing to strengthen homeland security. When will it be time to start questioning whether this makes us more secure? Perhaps doing all this might make us less secure at some point? It's not like 20th century governments have some impeccable record of not abusing their power over their citizens...
Posted anonymously, the chilling effect in action.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
So will the prospect of a good lawsuit and losing one's license.
It may also keep babies from being switched after birth.
So... taking their footprints at birth... what's that about then?
Again it comes down to responsibility and the threat of a good lawsuit. Adding tracking devices to us all like so many wild animals because some people are negligent is not a reasonable argument.
AFAIK, RFID tags have *NO* batteries. The power comes from the reader. They are passive devices which are read by a scanner. Effectively like a UPC.
-- Dan Jenkins, Rastech Inc.
I don't believe the FDA has a mandate to set any moral guidelines (ie saying RFIDs are a "good thing" or a "bad thing"). Same deal when they check abortion drugs etc.
Saying whether to allow RFID as a "good thing" or "bad thing" and should be legal or not is something that congress or whatever do.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Speaking from experience, about the last thing i would care about on scene at a wreck bad enough to eject stuff from the vehicle is whether you're allergic to pennicillin or not. What i care about is making sure your neck doesn't move, you can actually breathe, and that you're not bleeding to death or going into shock. We can find out pertinent medical data later, once you're stable.
In the field, about the only thing we can do to you, as an EMT, anyway -- medics can push some drugs, but not ones that would cause an allergic reaction, especially on a MVA -- we'd probably just push saline to get some fluids back into you; but about the only thing an EMT can do to trigger an allergic reaction is use latex gloves. that's it. nobody's allergic to O2 or a leg splint or a cerebral-spine stabilization device.
And it's not like i want to be standing in the middle of the road with a reciever, poking at you and trying to recieve... what, your own personal bar code so i can radio that to the hospital? that's going to take far longer than is safe, for you bleeding to death on the pavement, and for me about to get hit by a damn rubbernecker.
filter: +3. Hey, look! all the trolls went away!
... they'd patent it but teh aliens did it first....
At least one of the people with actual access to the data (and someone HAS to have access to it), will get pissed off at work, and will snag a few million rows of data (yours, maybe) and ftp/p2p/sneakernet it home. Later, when he gets fired for being an ass, he will sell it to various unsavory characters.
It happened at AOL, it's happened with banks, it's happened with credit card companies.
It will happen.
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
"Some sort of national medical database would alleviate this problem. I think the good here far outweighs the potential negatives of a few devious individuals who can now see that I had an ulcer in '97..."
They can also see that you went to see the doctor in '98 because you couldn't get it up, and to a shrink in '99 because you had the urge to hump random girls at Wal-Mart, and...
Sure, some stuff you might want to share, but if you knew that any random person could see exactly everything you've been to any sort of health care person to before for, wouldn't you think twice about going to the doctor for something embarrassing?
ND
This statement is forty-five characters long.
Drivers license, Social Security Card, Passport...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
I think the leader was supposed to be charismatic, which sort of rules him out.
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
But, id just get the help of my buddy Jack Daniels. HEs got bad judgement, and hand eye coordinaion, but when all else fails, hes jsut crazy enough to do this.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
When SSNs first came out, everybody warned about the possibility of abuse for its use as a national number similar to how the nazi's and USSR did
About 20 years ago, it was a huge no-no to use SSNs for doing software, but we did it anyways (actually, I was allowed as I was doing Medical Software in 1985). Then the justice dept cracked down on its use. So everybody switched to Drivers License, but that was considered too much of a national ID.
Now, in the last 3 years, we are required to give SSN's and Drivers Licenses everywhere (bank, jobs, etc). CC companies are now required to give instance access to DOJ whenever they want it. The DOJ has instance access to all tollroads DBs of which cars with tollpass RFIDs are tracking.
The patriot act II (basically passed by both houses and the admin on the day that Sadaam's capture was announced) assures the above and more. (interesting that is was more to DOJ rather than NSA/CIA/NGSA).
And now, the feds want to implant chips in us the same way that I do for my dogs????? Hummmm, Yeah, right.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Quite a number of bars in Europe already do this as a so-called 'VIP-treatment'; get an RFID implanted to pay for your drinks/entry (as in you get debited later on your bank account).
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
The problem is not even a matter of whether you have the 'balls' to do it. Look at the size of these things. These are smaller than a grain of rice, far smaller than a rice grain.
It is a matter of finding it, and digging through enough flesh until you find it. Ouch, I bet that stings.
Easy in, but not easy out.
Gee, why does this sound so much like Trusted Computing for Hominids??
:/~
In similar schemes, there's Proposition 69 on the fall California state ballot: this would provide for [I quote from the state election info booket]
DNA sampling of
1) all adults and juveniles convicted of any felony offense
2) all adults and juveniles convicted of any sex offense, or of an attempt to commit such an offense (not just felonies)
3) all adults *arrested* for or charges with felony sex offenses, murder, or voluntary manslaguhter (or the attempt to commit such offenses)
4) and starting in 2009, all adults *arrested* for or charge with ANY felony offense.
Which means you go into the state DNA database *whether you're guilty or not*. And while there are provisions supposed to let those found innocent get their sample removed from the database, when have you ever known a gov't to turn loose of any hold it has over its people, once it gets a good grip?
And wouldn't it be easier if everyone was just DNA'd and microchipped at birth, like it or not?
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
There are other non-invasive possibilities for locating the RFID chip, too, such as a skin patch, or for those with pierced ears, a small earring. The point being that it's removeable, and under the control of the patient.
While it's all well and good to be sure your meds don't get switched with someone else's, this ever-increasing lack of control over our own lives is most definitely not. And an ID implant (however benign) that you can't remove, is not under your control.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
As someone else pointed out, the FDA approves or not based on if the food, drug or device is safe to use. I.e. it won't poison you, give you cancer, or make you glow in the dark. The tag just contains a very big number. The potential for Orwellian scenarios lies in the databases that the number is linked to. That's what the ACLU needs to worry about. There needs to be some kind of legislation regulating the use of the number as an identifying mark.
Is there any reason long-term patients can't also use barcode bracelets instead? If it gets damaged/destroyed, oh no -- we print another for $0.10. Big deal.
There's no freedom-supporting justification for anybody using implantable RFIDs, and there is little practical justification for them either.
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
whether you like the comment or not is irrelevant, since the information you posted was misleading at best and plain incorrect at worst.
There are many scenarios where meds are proscribed and paramedics can push them, en route or on scene. Saying that meds can't be pushed and therefore couldn't cause any allergic reaction is just plain incorrect and if you are an EMT, you know that.
Yes patient stability is most important in a trauma situation, and trauma scenes are the most common scenario, but not always.
bkr1_2k
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."