INDUSTRY WATCH
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This means that where XPI is installed, ‘Healthcare 4.0’, will be the next
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Biometrics ‘is the future in the
healthcare sector’
Pine Pienaar, Managing Director
at Afiswitch, looks at how
biometrics is being used in the
healthcare profession.
T
he idea of using biometrics in the
healthcare sector is not new, but it
is one that hasn’t been explored or
exploited to its full potential. A biometrics-
based project was first piloted by health
workers in three South African provinces
back in 2005. The project was driven by the
national and provincial health departments
and made use of biometric technology,
sponsored by the private sector that allowed
for patient identification using fingerprints.
The aim of the project involved establishing a
central ‘infomediary’ to collect and reference
key medical information on behalf of patients.
At the time it was certainly recognised that
this kind of technologically enabled service
could boast significant benefits for patients
and public and private healthcare providers,
alike. Though regrettably, despite being
sound in its intentions, neither the initial
piloted project nor similar projects that
followed have seen widespread adoption
and implementation.
Fast-forward 14 years and today, in the
digital age, the opportunity for widespread
implementation of biometrics across the
healthcare sector is not only far greater but,
in my mind, bodes two crucial advantages
that should not be ignored.
troubling, but can hold reputational, financial
and even legal implications for healthcare
professional and facilities.
Biometric solutions offer an effective tool
for patient identification and authentication
– whereby a patient’s medical information
can be matched to a unique identifier such
as their fingerprint and stored in a master
database or central patient index.
Biometrics are accurate and thereby more
secure than, for instance, scenarios where
using an identification number which may
be entered incorrectly during a multiple
service provider registration process or
falsifying information can be eliminated and
patient information accuracy improved.
Biometrics, in turn, can be implemented
by public and private healthcare facilities
for internal purposes in order to identify
and verify healthcare personnel to enable
compliance with industry standards
regarding background screening processes,
as well as, providing various audit trails
for reporting purposes namely; shift work,
payroll and patient allocation.
Combatting medical fraud
Improved patient care Medical fraud is a growing phenomenon
globally – and South Africa is not unaffected.
It can be as a result of illicit actions by a health
service provider or a patient, with intention to
deceive or misrepresent medical information
to the advantage of one party’s individual
gain over the medical scheme provider.
Patient identification errors – and especially
cases that lead to a patient receiving
inappropriate care – are not only deeply However, the significant monetary losses
in the industry is not the only negative or
detrimental effect of medical fraud – fraud
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can also cause genuine patients to lose out on
access to quality care, loss of medical benefits
and/or receiving unnecessary or incorrect
treatment or medication. This can all affect
the patients continued health and well-being.
It’s not surprising then that more medical
schemes are deploying advanced data
intelligence solutions to mine and discover
patterns and trends in member and provider
behaviour. But what if all authorisations and
full medical data pertaining to patients or
members and health and wellness providers
could be attached to their individual unique
digital signature, such as a fingerprint.
This would certainly enforce ‘know your
patient’ values and, because the data will be
trackable using a biometric digital signature,
it makes it easier for medical schemes to
detect trends and thereby significantly
reduce occurrences of medical fraud.
Rapid technological advances – from
pervasiveness of the Internet and adoption
of disruptive technologies like cloud,
mobility and the Internet of Things (IoT) –
continue to facilitate biometrics adoption.
Today, devices and solutions can and
are being designed and built to address
specific application needs. In fact, there
are already examples of palm, fingerprint
and iris scanning biometric solutions being
implemented and tested across medical and
healthcare facilities globally.
And, as the local market follows the curve of
this trend, we expect that more widespread
adoption of biometrics with the aim of
protecting patients, professionals and
medical scheme providers, alike, is merely a
matter of timing. n
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