Wednesday Oct 9th, a computer chip the size of a grain of rice was approved by The Food and Drug Administration for implantation in a patient’s arm.
VeriChip, manufactured by Applied Digital Solutions of Delray Beach, Fla., is insert under the skin in a 20 minutes process by syringe and stores a code which releases patient information when scanned.
With the code, the health providers can unlock that portion of a secure (?) electronic database that holds that person’s medical information, which would be updated with each medical visit.
David Ellis, a guru at Detroit Medical Center will lobby for his center’s inclusion in a VeriChip pilot program stating “It’s part of the future of medicine to have these kinds of technologies that make life simpler for the patient.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced $139 million in grants to help make the push for electronic health records for most Americans within a decade.
To kickstart the chip’s use among humans, Applied Digital will provide $650 scanners for free at 200 of the nation’s trauma centers.
These electronic chips have been placed in pets for several years with a cost of approximately $50.00. However for humans, implantation cost would range from $150. – $200, but did not say if cost of data storage and encrypted transmission of medical information would be passed to providers.
source: examiner
