Palm vein biometric technology from Imprivata to secure patient records at U.S. healthcare network

Aug 16, 2018, 9:57 am EDT | Chris Burt

Missouri-based healthcare provider CoxHealth will deploy Imprivata’s PatientSecure palm vein biometric verification technology to ease the customer check-in process while ensuring patients are identified and treated correctly, local radio station KTTS reports.

The technology will be implemented throughout CoxHealth’s network, which includes five hospitals in Missouri and Arkansas, over the next few months. Palm vein scans can also be used to identify enrolled patients if they arrive in an emergency room unresponsive and without ID, and to prevent healthcare fraud.

“Identifying patients correctly is the first and fundamental step in a quality care process,” says Imprivata Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Kelly, who is a practicing Emergency Room physician in Boston. “We are pleased to be partnering with large health systems, such as CoxHealth, who are enabling clinicians throughout their facilities to pull up a single medical record for their patients and treat them appropriately.”

CoxHealth Administrative Director of Information Technology Jack Cole says that many people in the area have the same first and last names. “This will smooth the check-in process. Instead of staff having to determine the correct record, the patient’s palm is used to pull up a single correct record,” he says. “We have a lot of double-checks to prevent those issues, but this technology will stop the problem entirely.”

“Health care organizations using this technology have consistently seen their patients very satisfied by this service, as it brings them significant benefits. Consider a person arriving in the ER with no ID, it could make all the difference in the outcome,” says Cole. “This technology will save lives.”

The global healthcare biometrics market is expected to grow by a CAGR of over 19 percent through 2022.

Fujitsu recently announced a trial using palm vein authentication for cardless retail payments in Japan.