The VeriChip Implantable Microchip: The Future of Patient Identification

Imagine if you will that your daughter is off at college halfway across the country and is involved as a passenger in an automobile accident, leaving her unconscious as she’s whisked away to the nearest ER. For any of a number of reasons, she doesn’t have identification on her. The ER staff is unaware that she’s on various medications for diabetes, and that she's allergic to penicillin. In addition, they don’t know who her primary care physician is, her blood type, or her medical history, and they don’t even know her last name, as the driver of the car is a mere acquaintance.

She could likely become one of the 40,000 to 98,000 people that the Institute of Medicine estimates die each year in the ER setting, often times because of lack of information, according to VeriChip Corporation spokesman John Procter, who added that "it could be simple things, like allergies to certain medications or a bad mix of medications, pre-existing medical conditions, lost time due to essentially conducting research on an unidentified patient; often situations that can be alleviated or reduced in time simply with access to good information about that individual.” If only there was some way to identify her and access her electronic medical record regardless of the situation, providing peace of mind and the assurance that hospital staff will have the information they need to treat her best...

What is a VeriChip?

In 1990, an implantable pet identification chip that uses radiofrequency identification (RFID) was brought to the market to help identify lost or stolen pets, explains Procter. Eleven years later, Applied Digital (VeriChip Corporation’s parent company) researcher Dr. Richard Seeling was watching the recovery efforts following the 9/11 attacks on New York City and saw a firefighter writing his badge number on his arm in marker. A light bulb went of in Dr. Seeling’s head, and he immediately had the idea that an implantable ID chip would help humans. He implanted an animal chip in his own arm, was fine a few days later, shared the idea with his colleagues, and thus was born the VeriChip implantable human ID microchip. In three years, the VeriMed system became the only FDA-approved “patient identification system using implantable RFID technology, consisting of a handheld reader, a [VeriChip] microchip approximately the size of a grain of rice (containing a unique 16-digit ID number), and a secure, patient database."

How Does it Work?

The VeriChip is painlessly implanted in less than 10 seconds in the outpatient setting just under the skin at the back of the upper right arm, explains Procter. “The only information on the chip itself is a unique, 16-digit identifier that links that patient to their EMR,” he says. If hospital staff—that have the handheld scanner in their ER and actively scan a patient on entry while taking vital signs for a VeriChip implant—detects a number, they “would take that scanner to a dedicated computer terminal or laptop, plug the scanner in through a serial cable, and type in a password, which would then bring up that individual’s record. Based on that information, they can certainly make more educated healthcare decisions” than if working on a patient such as your hypothetical daughter.

The information received is housed in a secure, online EMR, according to Procter, and “can be as limited as the individual’s name and an emergency contact that might be able to convey important information or as comprehensive as their name, blood type, allergies, medications, medical history, and even legal documents; all information that is certainly very valuable and useful, and potentially life-saving in an emergency situation.”

Is There a Downside? “We haven't seen any negatives from the use of the systems,” Peter DeMaurro, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Hackensack University Medical Center, New Jersey, told MDNG; a year ago, the Center was the first of what is now 81 medical facilities to adopt the technology—a number VeriChip Corporation hopes to increase to 200 by the end of 2006. “We have the patient’s urgent medical necessities within minutes, including the patient’s private doctor,” Dr. DeMauro explains. “Very often, a patient has many comorbidities and they have many doctors taking care of them; if that patient comes in with a pulmonary problem, we’ll know by scanning them…who their pulmonary doctor is. We can bypass calling five other doctors.”

What About Privacy?

The VeriChip is “actually more private and secure than the old-fashioned way of getting data, [in which] you sent a clerk to the medical records department to pull the chart, copy it, and bring it back to the emergency room,” states Dr. DeMauro. “At that point in time, how many eyes and ears have had the ability to look at that chart?” With the VeriMed system, “it would be very difficult to scan the chip and get the information.” If someone did, “they would still need the password and PIN to get the data from our computer system.”

Can Patients be Tracked?

In a March 16, 2006 Washington Post article about VeriChip (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031402039.html), Liz McIntyre, co-author of a book warning of the dangers of RFID, said “It may seem innocuous, but the government and private corporations could use these devices to track people’s movements. It may sound paranoid, but this is bound to be abused.” Procter replies that not only does the VeriChip have no tracking capability, “but the read range of a VeriChip implant is a matter of centimeters from the skin. The chip itself…does not actively transmit its signal; in fact, it doesn’t even have a power source. The chip only responds to a very-close-proximity signal from a handheld scanner operating on a specific frequency.”

Who Has Access?

In the same Washington Post article, Richard M. Smith, an Internet and privacy consultant in Boston, said, “There’s nothing to stop someone from accessing the code and cloning the chip” to access records, and Janlori Goldman of the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, who heads the Health Privacy Project, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, asked, “Once the identification number is obtained, who gets to decide who gets access to the website? Can law enforcement have access? Can public health workers have access? Can employers have access?"

“Not only does the patient have complete control over what information is included in their file, they also have complete control over who has the ability to access that information,” replies Procter. “And there are no plans or ability for law enforcement or any type of government agencies to be able to gain access. This is a medical device intended to link a patient with their EMR,” which can be maintained and updated in coordination with their physician as necessary.

Why Do You Need to Know About It?

“Even in a non-emergency situation such as a regular office visit, a physician would be able to do a quick scan of the patient’s arm and pull up their entire medical file on a computer screen,” explains Procter. And this is increasingly becoming a reality. Since its approval, 232 physicians have elected to provide the VeriMed system, 172 of whom signed up in March 2006 (www.verichipcorp.com/news/1142883972). VeriChip Corporation is aggressively developing a physician network, in which physicians sign up to receive a starter kit for $1450 that contains a set of inserter devices with an encapsulated VeriChip, a handheld scanner, educational materials, and reference materials for patient education, along with training from VeriChip Corporation staff. The physician can recoup their cost through the fee-for-service procedure by charging patients a recommended $200 to $300. Procter adds that “while VeriMed is not yet covered under insurance, we are actively pursuing that and hope to have I covered in the near future.”

Physicians would identify patients who might be good candidates and discuss the technology with them. “While anyone could certainly benefit from the technology, those with chronic heart conditions, epilepsy, diabetes, or Alzheimer’s are more probable to end up in an emergency medical environment and be unable to communicate because of their pre-existing medical condition,” says Procter. And VeriChip Corporation is there for those using the technology all along the way, according to Dr. DeMauro.

Where is This Technology Headed?

The ultimate goal for the VeriChip technology is to establish a national network of physicians and hospitals that utilize the VeriMed system, so that when your hypothetical daughter—who now has an implanted VeriChip—is on spring break in Daytona Beach or Panama City and ends up in the ER, the staff can within minutes access all they need to know about her. To that end, “VeriChip is encouraged by [President Bush’s] administration’s and Congress’s efforts to encourage the adoption of technology in healthcare, and VeriChip certainly wants to be a part of that,” concludes Procter. “As a national network develops, VeriChip will certainly evolve to remain a leader in the industry.”