New report on healthcare biometrics released

Biometrics will continue to drive technological transformation within the global healthcare market, according to a new report published by the Biometrics Research Group Inc., the publisher of BiometricUpdate.com.

Transformation, according to the report, will be driven by biometric solutions that will provide meaningful cost savings through fraud reduction and increased workplace efficiency. A key objective of these technologies also will be the improvement and expansion of care delivery over the long term.

The research firm projects that the entire global marketplace for biometric solutions in the healthcare marketplace will reach almost US$5 billion by 2020.

Biometrics Research Group defines “healthcare biometrics” as biometric applications in doctors’ offices, hospitals, or for use in monitoring patients. This can include access control, identification, workforce management or patient record storage. Many hospitals and healthcare organizations are currently deploying biometric security architecture. Secure identification is critical in the healthcare system, both to control logical access to centralized archives of digitized patients’ data, and to limit physical access to buildings and hospital wards, and to authenticate medical and social support personnel.

In the healthcare sector, biometrics are used in combination with passwords or smart identification cards to secure access to sensitive patient records and to assist with patient registration requirements.

Biometrics Research Group, Inc. expects the use of biometrics to accelerate through the entire global healthcare sector due to the expanded adoption of biometrics to enhance cost saving methods to combat fraud in both government-insured programs and private sector insurance marketplaces. Growth in the use of biometrics in the sector will primarily be driven by the continuance of healthcare reform in the U.S., which will be mainly driven by cost containment imperatives. Medical biometrics, led by mHealth and wearables, will continue to make in-roads in the consumer technology marketplace.

This report was sponsored by HID Global and is available for immediate download (PDF) on the BiometricUpdate.com Web site.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  healthcare  |  market research  |  patient identification