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Advancing healthcare services securely

Healthcare services provide a pressurised working environment. Staff members need quick or easy access to information, theatres and pharmaceuticals. In addition, balancing patient confidentiality with patient care is no easy task. Patients demand security of their files, and doctors need to know that the file relates to the correct patient and that the information is accurate. Administratively, the hospitals need to be able to track authorised and unauthorised access to records and equipment.

Dave Crawshay-Hall, CTO at Brand New Technologies believes biometrics have an important role to play in the security of healthcare services. “It provides positive identification of users, securing against unauthorised access to premises or medical equipment. Biometric fingerprint technology can be used to effectively limit access to high security areas such as maternity wards, high care wards and dispensaries. They can also help to minimise medical insurance fraud and abuse of access to controlled pharmaceuticals. An added advantage of a biometric identifier is that it cannot be forgotten, lost, shared or stolen as with passwords or simple access cards.”

Of the various biometric measures available, fingerprinting is proving to be the most popular. It is viewed as less intrusive than iris scanning and the latest products available provide high accuracy levels. However, the healthcare industry presents a number of challenges for traditional fingerprint readers. The harsh operating environment often results in fingerprints that are difficult to scan accurately. Overwashing of hands can result in either too dry or too moist hands. The manual work involved in some aspects of healthcare can also lead to damaged or cracked fingers. All these factors negatively affect the quality of the fingerprint image, resulting in a high false rejection rate.

Lumidigm, represented locally by Brand New Technologies, has developed its multispectral imaging (MSI) technology used in its Venus series of fingerprint sensors.

“The MSI fingerprint technology uses multiple wavelengths of light to read both the external and internal fingerprints of a person,” explains Crawshay-Hall. “Unknown to most people, approximately 2 mm below the skin, is a set of capillaries that are in a pattern that is identical to one’s external fingerprints. With the multispectral fingerprint readers, if the external fingerprint is obscured by water, damaged by chemicals or simply worn, the fingerprint sensor uses the information from the internal fingerprint. This advanced technology means that healthcare practitioners do not even have to remove their protective latex gloves to gain access to restricted areas.

“The sensors are also very accurate even if placement of the finger is variable, allowing for high throughput. This solves many of the problems encountered within the healthcare environment,” concludes Crawshay-Hall.

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