I’ve been trying to convince my EMR vendor to implement a digital signature for a while. I had 2 requirments. I want the signature captured by a signature pad similar to one you might use at a local shopping mark. The second was capturing it on a tablet PC. I’ll discuss this more in the future and some of my thoughts on the subject, but I learned something really interesting the other night. A tablet PC keeps track of pen pressure, angle and a whole bunch of other things that recognize not only that someone is writing, but I’m told that you can also recognize if it is the same person writing the signature. I’m skeptical, but the idea is quite interesting.
Imagine someone comes into your Health Center or Counseling Center and you capture their signature the first time they are seen. Then, you can verify the fact that it is them when they are filling out any consent forms or referral forms by verifying the same signature tendencies as captured by the tablet. I’d like to test this, but it sure adds a great layer of security to the signature.
Well, being a bit skeptical is healthy.
The url below is a very good discussion of both the technical and legal issues of digital signatures, primarily collected on a Tablet PC. Also included is some source code.
I’m working on a couple of complete concept programs that demonstrate the capabilty to use a signature as a validation/logon technique.
I have looked at all the commercial sources cited in the article, but am convinced a Tablet provides a viable option as opposed to a third-party device.
“Digital Ink Signatures-Concepts and Technologies”
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dntablet/html/tbconinksig.asp
Shawn Van Ness has since left Lesynki and is now on the Tablet team at Microsoft.