Fortune Magazine Article Highlights Growing Use of Biometrics for Patient Identification

A patient has their photo captured with an iris recognition camera at a hospital that has deployed biometrics for patient identification.

Excellent article in Fortune magazine today written by Laura Shin that addresses the topic of healthcare data breaches and whether or not the increasing use of biometrics for patient identification will add a layer of protection to help thwart hackers in the future and eliminate medical identity theft and healthcare fraud. 

We are grateful that Laura included us in her research for the article, mentioning our work with implementing iris biometrics for patient identification at Novant Health’s Clemmons Medical Center location and a specific case of when a father brought his son into their facility, pointing out that:

During the first visit, the staff at the hospital, Clemmons Medical Center, asked to take a picture of the boy. The high-quality image captured his son’s iris pattern in an effort to prevent fraud, duplicate records, or what are known as “overlays,” when medical information for someone else makes it into a person’s file.

“In today’s society, that was really comforting to know that somebody else cannot come in and use his name or register with his account and have access to his medical record,” Major says.

Laura goes on to explain in her article how the use of biometrics for patient identification is helping the healthcare industry to eliminate duplicate medical records and overlays — two situations that pose a danger to patient safety and can be a drain on financial resources and man hours for any medical facility. Laura also discusses the use of unique questions from third party credit agencies as an extra protection when a patient enrolls into a biometric system to ensure that their identity is accurate before linking their biometric credentials to a unique medical record — a crucial step in the enrollment process. 

We want to again thank Laura for covering the use of biometrics for patient identification in healthcare and for drawing attention to a technology that is slowly gaining traction in the industry as a trusted technology to ensure patient safety and protect against stolen medical identities. 

A link to the article can be found here.