Hackensack University Medical Center and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey are participating in a two-year pilot program to implant a VeriChip radio frequency identification microchip in the arms of patients with chronic diseases. The chip is intended to provide emergency department staff easy access to those patients’ medical information, as well as to help avoid medical errors. Horizon, which is paying to implant the RFID chips, hopes to recruit 300 patients for the program and will analyze whether the chips save healthcare costs by reducing the numbers of duplicate lab tests, drug interactions, and misdiagnoses, reports eWeek.com.
Each patient’s unique 16-digit identifier found within the microchip will tie into his or her individual electronic health record stored by the VeriMed Patient Registry and will be accessible by physicians. Each record will contain information related to the patient’s condition, family contacts, lab test data, and pharmacy records. Read the press release.
