Summary
Implanted medical chip technology can help to reduce the amount of medical misdiagnosis that occur in hospitals and can also address the issue of the amount of money that Jones Corp. (a fictional company) pays out to its clients due to accusations of medical malpractice or their subsequent death.
Introduction
Based on data examining the prevalence of deaths in the U.S. as a result of medical errors, nearly 195,000 people die every year in hospitals due to some symptoms that were unforeseen from the onset of treatment (Wania and Cliadakis, 16-19). In fact, it was noted that a large percentage of deaths from some form of treatment error came about as a direct result of a misdiagnosis by doctors as well as unforeseen consequences when using particular methods of treatment due to the apparent lack of information regarding a patient’s medical history. From this alone, it can be seen that there is a distinct necessity in ensuring that accurate medical information can be obtained by health care professionals so as to reduce the number of deaths that come about as a result of a lack of information. Within the context of the daily operations of Jones Corp. (fictional insurance firm), this death rate is unacceptable because of the high amount of medical malpractice lawsuits that the company has to pay for as well as various financial problems associated with having to release the life insurance premiums of clients that died as a result of misdiagnosis.
Addressing the Issue
The RFID chip, a small innocuous device no bigger than a grain of rice, was debuted as being a safe and efficient way for hospitals to access the medical history of a patient so that they can speed up treatment and recovery (Grebb, 16). In a way, the advent of this particular type of technology could be thought of as a medical milestone, the future of medicine, so to speak, wherein doctors, EMTs, nurses, and other medical personnel can quickly and accurately diagnose a patient’s current condition based on their medical history. This can be accomplished even if the patient is unconscious, unable to speak, or is relatively unaware of their own history of medical care. In the case of Jones, Corp. requires all its clients to be implanted with these chips, this should increase the rate of proper medical diagnosis resulting in fewer instances of death as a result of a misdiagnosis.
Possible Issues
The prevalence of hacking-related crimes of any form of personally identifiable information creates a certain level of risk for people with embedded medical chips. Hackers can potentially access the information contained inside a chip resulting in a severe compromise of personally identifiable private information. With implanted medical chips, people may not even realize that their medical information can be accessed, copied, and used, as a way for others to pose as them in order to receive free medical treatment.
Recommendation
From the point of view of this paper, it can be seen that, despite the issue of privacy violation and identity theft, the implanted medical chips, such as the RFID chip, can help to reduce the number of deaths as a result of medical error and, as such, should be utilized by Jones Corp. for all its clients.
Positive Public Impact
The utilization of implanted medical chip technology would be able to provide the necessary information doctors need especially if implemented on a region-wide scale. In fact, utilization of the technology is rather cheap when compared to the possible complications that may arise as a result of a misdiagnosed medical condition and, as such, proves the importance of utilizing this particular technology as a possible health care standard that can be implemented by Jones Corp.
Works Cited
Grebb, Michael. “It’s Okay For Fluffy.” Bank Technology News 19.(2006): 15-16. Print.
Wania, Xerxes, and Steven Cliadakis. “Dealing With the Limitations Of Flash Memory. (Cover Story).” Portable Design 14.1 (2008): 16-19. Print.