As health care providers move to electronic records, correct patient identification becomes a priority

by Zack Martin, Editor, Avisian Publications

President Barack Obama wants every citizen to have electronic medical records. One of the challenges in health care though is making sure the correct record is linked to the right patient and that the information is secure.

Smart card and biometric vendors are vying for position in the rapidly emerging patient identification market. One vendor who is tailoring biometrics to the health care market is Tampa, Fla.-based HT Systems. The company has taken Fujitsu’s palm vein biometrics and customized it for health care and patient ID.

Palm vein biometrics uses infrared light to capture the user’s vein pattern. Health care could be a good market for palm vein because it requires little to no actual physical contact with a scanner, unlike fingerprint biometrics. The scanner reads the palm vein pattern from a few inches away.