Biometrics for Healthcare

The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined that accurate patient identification is one of the nine priorities to improve patient safety. According to statistics recently, 67% of the errors in blood transfusions are due to misidentifications, 13% of all adverse effects that harm patients in surgeries are due to wrong identifications and ID wristbands only reduce errors by 50%.

Umanick, an innovative Spain-based technology company, has developed a solution that utilizes biometric recognition technology in order to make identity fraud, impersonation and theft closer to disappearing. UMANICK Identity for Health is a solution that uses fingerprint, face and iris recognition to authenticate and verify the patient identity. The solution has been chosen by the Murcia Public Healthcare Service to carry out an innovative pilot project at the Arrixaca Hospital’s Day Hospital which is considered as a very sensitive place where identification errors may lead to fatal consequences.

IriTech’s IriShield MK 2120U, an ultra-compact, auto capture iris scanner, has been chosen in this project not only because of its accuracy but also its flexibility as it can easily connect to a PC, laptop or an Android phone/tablet through USB port to capture patient’s irises. During the medical examination, patient’s biometric data will be captured and matched with the previously registered database to make sure there is no misidentification. While fingerprint is used to securely identify patient at the reception desk, doctor appointment or blood drawing room; iris is used in medication process which requires the maximum security. Using the hospital tablet, the nurse first identifies the patient and then matches its record with medication later.

This advanced biometric technology has brought many benefits to both the hospital and the patient such as: no more patient harm due to wrong identification, zero fraud by patient identity theft, reduction in healthcare spending and zero ‘second victims’ (no more nurses or doctors suffering when involved in patient harm caused by identification errors).

Reference: http://www.umanick.com/en/success-story-arrixaca-hospital/