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Friday, February 1, 2008

In Defense of RFID

Filed under: Society

BusinessWeek is running a series of articles that take a look at the various issues surrounding the controversy of implantable microchips. This week, Scott R. Silverman, CEO of VeriChip out of Delray Beach, FL, is defending the technology that led his company to receive the first FDA approval for implantable RFID:

During the FDA approval process we provided 34 studies to the FDA demonstrating the safety of implantable microchips. There have been numerous studies in mice, rats, woodchucks, rabbits, guinea pigs, pigs, and dogs that investigated the microchip and potential adverse effects of inserting it into subcutaneous tissue. None of these studies showed any tumors or other significant problems. It is clear the use of microchips in humans and pets is a safe and a dependable means of identification that has been used in millions of animals for over 15 years and in humans for the past several years. Except for a few vocal naysayers, this product is overwhelmingly embraced by medical professionals and high-risk patients.

There has also been some confusion regarding the VeriMed microchip's capabilities. The VeriMed microchip is a passive device (it has no power source) that is activated only when read by our scanner. The microchip stores only an identification number and cannot track a person's whereabouts because it does not have Global Positioning System capability. Some privacy advocates have voiced concerns regarding our microchip but often we find that once people are educated on what the device is: a passive identification tool to identify high-risk patients and their medical records; and what the device isn't—a GPS tracking device —their concerns are mollified.

More at BusinessWeek...

VeriChip Corp.

Related: California Senate Passes Bill Outlawing RFID Skimming

email this article to a friend      print this!           comments and peer reviews (2)




replies: 2 comments
Open comments are not moderated, although abusive and vulgar remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Medgadget.com. Please consult our disclaimer.

I have no direct knowlage about the construciton of these devices but I have
been looking at similar things over the past 15 years. The reports are that there
have been tumors at the site of implant in the animal studies on these devices.

The issue with these devices may be the composition of the encapsulant.
Just guessing,.. but by looking at the device and knowing diffusion rates it
must be a low temperature glass that that device in embedded in. The glass
would be primarily SiO2.

SiO2 is known to dissolve in the body. There are numerous papers showing
that glass goes away at fairly significant rates.

In addition the additives in the glass that lower the melting point could be suspect.
A lot of the things that thrown into low melting point glasses have questionable
biocompatibility.


Posted by: meddeviceengineer
on February 2, 2008 08:26 AM GMT

The essence of the question at hand is whether on not such devices should be implanted in anybody or anything without prior consent. I revert to the days of cash as monetary barter when one needn't be monitored or kept track of for no apparent reason. This is absurd. I see no benefit and I see Exxon Mobil break the earnings record for the best quarter in history by any company ever. Yet we are to believe that the barrel of oil is at a record high? When resources become more extravagant, profits go down. There is something very wrong here.


Posted by: gig
on February 3, 2008 02:33 AM GMT

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