AMA gives mixed review to RFID tagging

A report from the American Medical Association has taken a fairly ambivalent stance toward the use of implanted RFID technology to track patients.

On the one hand, the report notes, the technology could make it easier to identify patients--which would speed access to their medical data--and would also improve coordination of care and make medical processes more efficient. On the other hand, AMA authors worried the implanted devices might migrate under the skin, potentially causing patient harm, and might cause electromagnetic interference which could interfere with some medical devices. Just as importantly, it's not clear how secure medical data would be from being read by hidden readers.

All told, it seems physicians see the potential of this technology but are far from ready to give it a full endorsement.

To learn more about the RFID report:
- read this PCWorld piece
- read this AMA report (.doc)

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