The World's First RFID-Enabled CIO

By Roland Piquepaille

You might remember that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in October 2004 the usage of a computer chip for humans, which can be inserted under our skin (read this Associated Press story to refresh your memory.) Maybe it doesn't sound like a good idea to you, but some people take their jobs very seriously. John D. Halamka, the CIO of both the Boston's CareGroup Health System and the Harvard Medical School, decided to take the plunge. Health Data Management reports that he's now a RFID-Enabled CIO. He was successfully implanted with a VeriChip in the arm in December 2004 during a painless, 15-minute procedure. He said that RFID readers can identify him even if he wears several layers of clothing. He added he wanted to check how the chip could be used in future medical applications, such as retrieving information from a nonresponsive patient or checking if a medication or procedure was given to the correct person. Read more...

Here are some selected excerpts from the Health Data Management article.

John Halamka, M.D., does not have a chip on his shoulder. He has a chip in his shoulder.

Halamka, CIO at Boston's CareGroup Healthcare System, has become the first volunteer to test an implantable radio frequency identification chip for medical use. The VeriChip, from Delray Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital, was approved in October by the Food and Drug Administration for medical use in humans. In December, it was classified as a Class II medical device with special controls.

But why did he accept this implantation of a chip inside his body?

After Halamka met with VeriChip officials in November, he volunteered to evaluate the device and share his assessment with the vendor and the health care industry. He was implanted with the grain-sized chip on December 22, in what he called a painless, 15-minute procedure.

"The implantation required local anesthesia to a two-inch area of my arm between my elbow and shoulder," he said Wednesday in an interview with Mobile Health Data. "The chip was inserted under my skin--between the fascia and the muscle. I can't feel it."

This CIO is not the only guinea pig in the U.S., but apparently, he's the first person to get that this implant for medical purposes.

Nearly 40 people across the United States have been implanted with a VeriChip and are testing the device, said Richard Seelig, M.D., vice president of medical applications at Applied Digital. These volunteers, however, are using the system for identification and security access applications -- not health care, he adds.

And just in case you would be tempted by a VeriChip, how much will it cost to get one?

Applied Digital will begin marketing the VeriChip system to clinicians and provider organizations next month, Seelig says. It will be classified as a prescription medical device and require a physician to perform the implantation.

The vendor will sell the chips to patients for $200 and the readers to health care organizations for $650, Seelig adds. The cost of the implantation will be established by a patient's physician.

For more information about the company behind the Verichip, Applied Digital Solutions, you can check its website -- if you enjoy Macromedia Flash sites -- or go directly to this plain HTML page. You can even get a a $50 discount by filling this pre-registration form, aptly named Get Chipped