Ideally, patients will only have RFID chips implanted in them if they're on board with the idea. However, a Florida state Senator fears that if protections aren't put into place, patients could have such chips implanted against their will. To make sure this doesn't happen, Senator Bill Posey (R) has filed a bill that would prohibit chip implantation without prior approval. The bill, which some Florida legislators consider a bit, well, paranoid, has nonetheless won approval from the state Senate's health regulation committee.
Though the concept is still in its early stages, having medical record-bearing chips implanted in a patient's skin is far from science fiction. Florida-based VeriChip, which gets consent from every patient involved, has federal approval to implant medical record chips in patients. About 500 hospitals are making this technology available to patients, and have brought the needed scanning technology on board. The idea is not only to make medical data use convenient, but to make histories, drug lists and the like accessible even if the patient is unconscious.
To learn more about the bill, and this technology:
- read this article from The Associated Press
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