I have with me the American Medical Association (AMA) report, which brings mixed response on the use of RFID tags in human skins, especially on patients to keep track.
At the very outset, the report claims that the RFID chips have not properly tested, even though the Food and Drug Administration has approved this technology in 2004 in medical use drawing a battle line between the medical practitioners and privacy advocates.
In the report ‘Radio Frequency ID Devices in Humans’, the AMA says that the most critical issue before human ID implantation is privacy. The patients must be ensured that the data collected by using RFID chips will be kept in secrecy.
They must also be protected from embarrassment, potential social discrimination, loss of health care coverage, or other detrimental consequences.
However, the report did not ignore the benefits of RFID technology in the healthcare units. The chips can encourage timely identification of patients and expedite access to their medical information. As a result, there would be minimal error and adverse drug events.
The report concludes:
RFID technology has the potential to improve patient care as well as patient safety. However, the safety and efficacy of human-implantable RFID devices has yet to be established. Therefore, the medical community should support further investigations to obtain the data necessary to make informed medical decisions regarding the use of these devices. The medical community should also be sensitive to potential social consequences of RFID devices, such as non-medical applications in law enforcement.
