While at AHIMA, I was lucky enough to meet John Trader from RightPatient (A part of M2SYS Healthcare Solutions). During our meeting he showed me the coolest technology I’ve seen in quite a while. Ever since I first started this blog, I had a serious interest in seeing how biometric solutions could benefit an EHR implementation. I’ve tried fingerprint, facial (and this review), voice, typing, etc and been amazed by the technology. Facial recognition was probably my favorite despite its weaknesses.
The funny thing is that I always shot down anyone that suggested the use of some sort of eye related biometric identification. Thinking to my only reference for retina scanning biometrics (movies like Mission Impossible), I didn’t see how that was going to integrate well with healthcare.
Turns out that I was wrong, and my big mistake was that I was looking at the technology from a doctor, nurse, front desk staff identification perspective as opposed to a patient identification perspective. Plus, I didn’t get the difference between retina scanning and iris recognition.
With this background, you can imagine my surprise when I fell in love with the RightPatient iris recognition technology that John Trader demoed to me at AHIMA. I shot this short video embedded below where John discusses the differences between retina scanning (the laser scan you see in the movies) and iris recognition. Then, John demos their iris recognition technology.
Much more could be said about how the iris technology works, but I think it’s best deployed at a hospital front desk during registration. Imagine the number of duplicates that could be avoided with good biometric iris recognition. Imagine the insurance abuse that could be avoided with iris recognition.
In the video I only showed one of the model’s that RightPatient deploys. They have another model that automatically swivels until it locates your iris. It’s hard to explain on the blog, but when you try it first hand it’s like magic.
What happens to my iris based record if I have Lasix?
I’m sure it’s like other biometric that adjusts as you change over time. Plus, they can still verify you through other methods if the Iris doesn’t match. I’ll see if John can talk about if and how Lasix affects the Iris recognition.
John, you are correct, Lasix surgery does not affect the iris and a patient who had previously been enrolled in the system will not need to be re-enrolled following Lasix or even the use of contact lenses. One of the distinct advantages of iris biometrics is that over time, the iris does not change and patients who originally enroll (even as young as 10 months old!) would not need to re-enroll at anytime in the future barring traumatic damage to the eye.
Great question, Carl, thank you!