Smart Tagging in Health Care

[Guest guest]

Whoa nelly... Can we think about this a little more? Is it wise to

mix machine parts in humans? Who does this serve?

 

If allegedly this is for health reasons, which I have seen open to

much debate, must we not first have a better understanding of health

and disease before taking such a radical action? Is the source of

disease the germ that invades the territory or is it the territory

that supports the growth of the germ? Pasteur on his deathbed

recanted and said it was the terrain and not the critters that were

of importance.

 

If this is so, how does a chip constructed by man, subject to all

the errors and follies of the human race, benefit the natural

balance, harmony and therefore health of the terrain of the human

body? Would not an artifical machine part, again subject to the

errors and follies of its contructor, instead disturb this fine

harmony?

 

Now, if the purpose of the chip is to monitor the health of the

person, must we not ask, are we so helpless that we can not monitor

our own state of health? Can we distinquish our own state of being

so poorly, that we are incapable of knowing when we feel good and

when we don't that we need to have machine parts implanted in us, to

do this for us? And just out of curiosity, to what extent exactly

would these chips be monitoring us?

 

But lastly, using chips to identify people or store their medical

information, how does one rationalize this? Must we now chip our

people as we do our consumer goods? Have people become no more than

products or parts? Is it not enough that large databases containing

our medical (and other) information can be created (if not already

in progress) that we must litteraly link people up into that

machine, have people become those machines?

 

Smart Tagging may be anything but smart...

 

Be Well,

Misty

http://www..com

 

 

 

 

 

Let's Get Chipped

http://www.line56.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=4609

 

 

 

Let's Get Chipped

Smart Tagging in Healthcare conference to discuss

subdermal uses of radio frequency identification

technology; " chipping " humans with medical information

 

 

by Demir Barlas, Line56

 

Friday, April 25, 2003

 

 

 

To date, radio frequency identification technology

(RFID) has been discussed mainly as a way for

manufacturers, retailers, and consumer packaged goods

(CPG) companies to keep track of parts and products in

their respective supply chains, next week will see

RFID introduced to a brand new vertical: healthcare.

That's when U.K.-based IDTechX, a boutique consultancy

focused on RFID, will host an event entitled " Smart

Tagging in Healthcare " in London.

 

The event may prove to livelier than the average

conference because, in healthcare, some RFID chips

will be implanted not into things but into humans.

This is the aspect of the conference that stands out

at first glance, although the agenda also encompasses

RFID technology as it relates to vaccine, drug, and

medical device tracking.

 

One of the companies taking center stage at " Smart

Tagging in Healthcare " is the VeriChip Corporation, a

subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions. VeriChip will

be making a presentation around its chip's

applications in healthcare -- which, the company is at

pains to emphasize, are still under review by the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

 

VeriChip spokesperson Matthew Cossolotto praises the

potential benefits of the technology, beginning with

the revelation that he has been " chipped " himself.

" It's a simple, painless procedure, like getting a

shot, " he says. The subdermal chip is usually

implanted in the tricep, as it was in Cossolotto's

case. From a medical standpoint -- pending future FDA

approval -- it could be used to list Cossolotto's

medication and other health information in case of

emergency. Cossolotto adds, however, that a medical

chip functions only in the context of a system that

includes scanners (including hand-held) at hospital

and emergency sites and a central database to which

the scanners will link to download a patient's

information.

 

Cossolotto is aware that there could be many privacy

concerns around VeriChip. Recently, an uproar over

Benetton's plan to tag its clothes caused the company

to pull back, and the idea of tagging humans has the

potential to be a far more sensitive issue. But

Cossolotto thinks that, with a proper marketing and

education campaign, these concerns can be allayed.

" The word 'tracking' is a misnomer, " he says. " It's

not like a GPS device, you need close proximity to a

scanner to read the chip. And if you don't want it, a

minor incision can remove it. "

 

Cossolotto concludes by reiterating that medical uses

of VeriChip are still under review by the FDA, but

that some adopters have moved ahead regardless.

" People are free to buy it and 'get chipped,' as we

call it, " he says. For now, though, such adopters will

have to wait for the FDA and for the widescale

adoption of RFID technology by hospitals in order to

get the full benefit of their implant.