Study to look at planting identification chips in dementia patients
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mar 1st, 2007 7:34 AM
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Study to look at planting identification chips in dementia patients*
By Glenn Singer
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The scenario is all too real in South Florida: An Alzheimer's patient
wanders away from home and is found by police officers who take him to a
local hospital for care. But the patient cannot recall potentially
life-threatening conditions like diabetes or heart disease, making a
quick assessment difficult at best.
To help solve that problem, a Delray Beach company and the Alzheimer's
Community Care Association of Palm Beach and Martin Counties Inc. have
begun a two-year study to determine whether it's practical to implant
tiny computer chips containing medical records in dementia patients.
If a patient becomes separated from family members, emergency room
doctors could obtain crucial medical information by scanning the chip,
obtaining a 16-digit identification number and then entering the number
in a special computer system at the hospital. That would disclose the
patient's name, address, caregiver, diagnosis, physician, medical issues
and medications.
"People with Alzheimer's and dementia are our most vulnerable
population, particularly during hurricane season. We're hoping this kind
of technology creates a safer environment for them and creates higher
efficiency in the emergency room," said Mary Barnes, president and chief
executive of Alzheimer's Community Care.
VeriChip Corp. will provide the chips for free for the two-year,
200-patient study that could start as early as May. The company also
will seek to enroll as many Palm Beach County hospitals as possible in
the study and equip them with scanners to access the patient code
embedded on each chip, spokeswoman Allison Tomek said.
The Alzheimer's group said it plans to hire a nurse to implant the chips
in the upper arm of volunteers.
Six hospitals in the county -- Boca Raton Community Hospital, West Boca
Medical Center, Delray Medical Center, Wellington Regional Medical
Center, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center and Columbia Hospital in West
Palm Beach -- already have scanners that could be used for the study,
Tomek said.
In the case of Alzheimer's patients unable to make medical decisions,
the legally designated responsible party must give permission for the
patient to participate, officials said.
VeriChip is majority owned by Delray Beach's Applied Digital Solutions
Inc., which has been promoting implantable microchips since 2002. That
year, a family of four from western Boca Raton was "chipped" live on the
Today program. The Food and Drug Administration gave approval in 2004 to
use the chips for medical uses.
Digital Angel Corp. of South St. Paul, Minn., also majority owned by
Applied Digital Solutions, supplies the chips.
VeriChip officials said they think a successful study with Alzheimer's
patients in South Florida could stimulate orders from organizations
around the country that deal with dementia patients.