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SIMPRINTS USING FINGERPRINTS TO REVOLUTIONIZE PATIENT DATA MANAGEMENT

Smartphone-Linked Scanner Allows Healthcare Workers to Better Manage Patient Data in Developing Countries

Making healthcare accessible to people in developing countries is the driving force behind Cambridge-based start up, SimPrints, whose fingerprint scanner has been on trial in Bangladesh for the last year. The innovative scanner allows healthcare professionals to identify and access patient medical records with the simple swipe of a finger. The simplicity of the concept avoids issues that frequently appear in developing nations; identification is based on a unique fingerprint and does not rely on official record systems or dates of birth, which are not always reliable in developing countries. Patient data can be accessed and updated quickly with SimPrints scanner which connects to an online database via a smartphone or tablet. In areas with poor connectivity health workers can update medical files offline, these will then automatically sync with the database when the phone gets a signal. The scanner is powered by an ARM Holdings processor, which can usually be found in the likes of Apple’s iPhones.

When asked about the security implications of using SimPrints system, CEO Toby Norman said, “First, we don’t work with patient medical records, so we never store or hold access to patient data, that’s all held by the organizations we work with. Second, we never transmit raw fingerprint images, so we actually do the the extraction process, where you take a fingerprint image and turn it into a template, we do that on the scanner itself. Meaning that the fingerprint image never leaves the scanner. Third, we use the same level of encryption that you would use in online banking or financial transactions to secure any data that passes between the phone and the server.” Five different prototypes have been tested in Bangladesh and the company believe they could go into production with the final design sometime in 2015, with a device costing somewhere in the region of USD $40 (€36).

SimPrints $40 Finger Scanner Could Transform Health Care

Details

  • Chesterton Tower, Cambridge CB4 1DZ, United Kingdom
  • SIMPRINTS