CertaScan reaches 1.5M infant footprint biometrics scanned in US

Infant biometrics company CertaScan Technologies has reached a milestone in the U.S. market, with 1.5 million American babies enrolled into its newborn footprinting system.

The company sells a bundle of hardware, software and services, and has placed them in more than 160 birthing hospitals around the U.S. so far. They include Orlando Health Lake Mary Hospital, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Stamford Hospital in Connecticut and Abrazo Arrowhead Campus in Arizona. CertaScan is based in Stamford.

CertaScan describes the biometric device as “LiveScan high resolution image capture technology.”

The system also takes facial photos of the infant for visual comparison and the index fingerprint biometric of the mother. The whole process takes less than three minutes and integrates with existing hospital workflows, according to the announcement.

The company says that 65 percent of hospitals in the U.S. use paper-based methods for collecting infants’ footprints.

In infant abductions in the U.S. between 1983 and 2020, when the most recent incident was recorded, there have been 110 attempts to identify newborns. Footprints were used for identification in 17 of the 67 cases where a single method was used, and in 12 of the 43 where multiple methods were used, according to data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) shared on CertaScan’s website.

“Newborn security can’t rely on methods that belong to another era,” says David Yarnell, chairman and CEO of CertaScan Technologies, in the announcement. “Hospitals that lead with innovation are adopting digital footprinting as a core patient safety practice. Hospitals that don’t are exposing themselves and the families they serve to avoidable risk.”

U.S. company Synolo has been making inroads in Brazil’s emerging market for infant biometrics.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  CertaScan Technologies  |  digital identity  |  foot prints  |  infant biometrics  |  United States