Biometrics in Healthcare
The term biometrics is always associated to fingerprint but there is actually more to it, biometrics is a term related to our human body itself, whereby biometrics are defined as the physical or behavioral human characteristics that can be used to digitally identify an individual for numerous purposes that include but not limited to: (a) Granting access (b) Identity confirmation and (c) record matching. Examples of biometric techniques include; Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), fingerprints, facial, voice, iris, palm, and vein patterns among others.
In this article, we shall focus more on fingerprint biometrics and its application in healthcare and underscore why healthcare practitioners, managers, and enthusiasts should be thinking of adopting biometrics for use in their settings. According to recogtech a security solutions company, fingerprint biometrics are arguably the most used and best-known biometrics. However, facial and iris recognition are steadily gaining tract as years go by. The fundamental reasons as to why fingerprint biometrics stands out in terms of popularity are related to the fact that: (a) Their ease use (b) relatively affordable in terms of software and hardware, i.e. Fingerprint scanners are all over the market unlike DNA profiling machines and (c) Fingerprints don’t consume a lot of computing resources when it comes to storage and processing hence efficient. It should, however, be noted that as the number of fingerprints stored in the database increases, the more resources you will need, the good news is, the increment in resource consumption is not exponential hence manageable even in the long run.
As a matter of fact, fingerprinting as a record matching and identification methodology is widely known and used. Nonetheless, its penetration and usage, particularly in the healthcare industry, is still on the low. This is usually attributed to the intricacies in the healthcare workflow and other care processes that make it’s implementation a little bit tricky. Unlike other sectors like banking, Immigration, and security where the usage and implementation of biometrics is pretty straight forward, in healthcare the terrain assumes a different and tricky trajectory. Patient privacy and confidentiality concerns have always been cited as major issues to the implementation of this technology in the sector. Furthermore, ethical concerns surrounding the appropriate use of biometrics have also been of great concern, especially in resource-poor settings where data protection acts may not be comprehensive enough to protect patients as we push for biometrics integration in the healthcare industry. This is also true for advanced economies and that’s why states like Illinois in the USA had to pass an additional privacyact on top of HIPAA to cater for biometric implementations in their jurisdiction. Therefore addressing privacy and ethical concerns is crucial as we push for this technology in the healthcare industry. Other challenges to the implementation of biometrics include; (a) Sometimes you might require more than one finger to improve accuracy especially in populations where people’s palms are affected by the nature of their work, e.g. ironsmith workers usually have worn out palms; (b) if security is not ensured then client’s fingerprints may be compromised and used for the wrong reasons, and (c) people’s perception of biometrics being linked to crime scene investigations could also pause as a challenge to the implementation and acceptance of the technology.
So why biometrics in healthcare?
To ensure patient safety, the right care must be administered to the right patient. This, therefore, calls for proper and meticulous patient identification before administering care. Patient identification sometimes referred to as patient matching is the ability to match a patient to their record either situated in an Electronic Medical Records System (EMRs) or another medium such as a patient card. Failure to correctly match patients before care leads to errors that sometimes even lead to death in the worst-case scenario.
A report published in 2016 indicated that in the United States alone, about 195,000 deaths occur each year because of medical errors, with 10 of 17 being the result of identity errors. Preventing patient identification errors has been and still is an area of significant research.
While much progress has been made in this area, there is still more work and effort needed, patient identification errors can occur in every healthcare setting, during the encounter especially if due diligence is not done. Nonetheless, these errors are preventable, and to achieve this, biometrics could just be the answer, healthcare entities looking forward to providing the most secure and uniquely identifiable end-user authentication while providing the best inpatient and staff experience are considering Biometrics for the solution.
Despite the intricacies in the health settings workflow and not forgetting the challenges to the implementation of biometrics mentioned earlier, fingerprint biometrics matching and identification is actually feasible and implementable in these settings. Since people are used to fingerprinting in other sectors like banking and aviation, chances are high that this technology will be embraced and acceptable to the users (patients) in this domain if adopted and of course, keeping user concerns like patient privacy, confidentiality, and others in check.
Patients often lose or misplace their patient cards, which usually contain patient identification information and other pertinent details, in the event that the card lost as is always the case, patient identification becomes cumbersome, time-consuming and counterproductive to the care process. However, if fingerprints are used, then you are sure the patient will be identified in real-time and this will significantly reduce the time of the encounter which in the end improves efficiency.
References
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/11287462.2020.1773063
http://www.biometricsdirect.com/Biometrics/laws/HIPAA.htm
Article by: Noah k. Jaafa,
HELINA Association.