Microchips in medicine
Moscow
Medicine Academy
Essay:
« Microchips in medicine »
year student group 1of military trainingAnn: Karagezyan M. V.
Moscow,
2010
Contents
Introdactionin medicinethe doctors’ prescriptionsin
Blood Pressure Pills Nags Patients Who Skip Meds
Microchip implants linked to cancer in animalImplants, Mind Control,
and Cyberneticsabout VeriChip
Testing the microchip(VeriChip) implantsmicrochip
technology in medicine
Introduction
long, sensors may be implanted in our bodies to do things
like measure blood-glucose levels in diabetics or retinal pressure in glaucoma
patients. But to be practical, they'll have to both be very small--as tiny as a
grain of sand--and use long-lasting batteries of similarly small size, a
combination not commercially available today. researchers at the University of
Michigan have made a processor that takes up just one millimeter square and
whose power consumption is so low that emerging thin-film batteries of the same
size could power it for 10 years or more, says David Blaauw, a professor of
electrical engineering and computer science at Michigan and lead researcher on
the project.when this processor, dubbed the Phoenix, is coupled with a battery,
the whole package would only be a cubic millimeter in volume. At this scale,
Blaauw says, it could be feasible to build the chip into a thick contact lens
and use it to monitor pressure in the eye, which would be useful for glaucoma
detection. It could also be implanted under the skin to sense glucose levels in
subcutaneous fluid. More broadly, this low-power approach to processor design
could be used in environmental sensors that monitor pollution, or structural
health sensors, for instance.
Microchips in medicine
much heralded 'microchip revolution' has made an impact in
many fields - industrial automation, supermarket stock control and business
accounting, to name but a few - and television games can occupy the new-found
leisure of the community. However, the transition from manual operation to
partial or full automation is not necessarily easy and may require a different
approach on the part of the user. It is perhaps not surprising that the
microchip has had very little impact on the practice of medicine as a whole at
the present time.one end of the scale, special purpose processors are built
into a wide variety of equipment such as blood gas analysers, devices for
testing respiratory function or patient monitors. The user is often unaware
that the machine is microprocessor based, but this may be advantageous in terms
of increased reliability and versatility with reduced cost. In theory,
improvements in system software may be readily incorporated, although in
practice changes may not be passed on to the user and bugs in the system may be
troublesome. Maintenance is also likely to be easier for the manufacturer, but
faults may be difficult for the user to eradicate unless details of test and
troubleshooting procedures are available. Computer-based body canners lie at
the other end of the spectrum, where powerful computing facilities are required
to control the system and process the signals from X-ray or other
detectors.devices rely on high-speed dedicated computers for their operation,
and the low cost and ready availability of suitable microprocessors have helped
to make these machines a commercial reality. This development has had an
enormous impact on clinical practice. In addition, there are many computer
applications, using general purpose or dedicated machines, which have only an
indirect effect on patient care. Data processing and retrieval systems, which
may vary in size from simple pocket calculators to large computer
installations, are well established particularly for financial transactions and
may also be used for stock control, clinical chemistry and other well defined
purposes. However, the fully developed computer-based hospital information
system, although heralded for more than a decade, remains unimplemented. This
is largely due to the inflexibility of many computer systems and the
difficulties of providing the system with accurate and up-to-date information.
Less amibitious schemes have been developed for teaching, patient interrogation
and other purposes. These are often used very successfully in the centres where
they were developed, but may languish when transferred to other institutions.
This is not necessarily surprising in view of the
individualistic nature of medical practice,idiosyncrasies of systems designers
or programmers and lack of compatibility between equipment from different
manufacturers. Thus the benefits of microprocessor-based systems, whether for
information retrieval or process control, are best seen in service (such as
radiology and pathology) and administrative departments of the hospital, and
computers have made little or no direct impact on clinical practice., it must
not be forgotten that successive generations of medical students are becoming
increasingly exposed to computing techniques. It is the attitude of tomorrow's
consultants and of the patients under their care, as much as the development of
new technology, which will determine the place of computing in the day-today
care of patients in the futurethe doctors’ prescriptions
company is testing technology that inserts a tiny microchip
into each pill swallowed and sends a reminder to patients by text message if
they fail to follow their doctors’ prescriptions.partnership with Proteus
Biomedical, which originally developed the technology, is one of several
alliances under development by Novartis as it and rival pharmaceuticals
companies attempt to maintain high prices for innovative medicines by ensuring
that they are taken as the doctor ordered. Pfizer’s Health Solutions division
has developed a system to telephone patients to encourage them to take
medicine.Jimenez, head of pharmaceuticals at Novartis, said tests using the
system - which broadcasts from the “chip in the pill” to a receiver on the
shoulder - on 20 patients using Diovan, a drug to lower blood pressure, had boosted
“compliance” with prescriptions from 30 per cent to 80 per cent after six
months.experiment comes amid rising concern among governments and health
insurers that they are not seeing the health improvements claimed by drugs
companies because patients do not take the medicines as prescribed unless they
are closely supervised in clinical trials.often drops off rapidly for patients,
especially those taking medicines for chronic conditions such as hypertension
and diabetes. This is because of unpleasant side effects or because patients do
not rapidly develop symptoms and so fail to notice the value of the drug.
However, with patients then going on to develop more serious forms of illness
and require hospitalisation or surgery, the result is hundreds of millions of
dollars a year in unnecessary costs.
in
Blood Pressure Pills Nags Patients Who Skip Meds
, new technology is both creepy and common sense. Take, for
example, a system Novartis is testing for reminding patients to take their
blood pressure meds.company is testing inserting tiny microchips into the pills
as part of a system that tracks whether patients are taking their meds as
prescribed. When patients veer off course, they get a text message
reminder.technology has significantly improved adherence in a very small group
of patients taking the company’s blood pressure medicine Diovan, a Novartis
exec tells the Financial Times.patients to consistently take drugs for chronic
conditions like high blood pressure can be a problem. The drugs sometimes cause
side effects, and failing to take them can raise long-term risks for strokes
and heart attacks without causing any immediate symptoms.is partnering on the
project with a small company called Proteus Biomedical, one of several
companies mentioned in this August WSJ story that looked at the push to use
wireless technology to try and keep people healthier - an effort that has also
drawn big players like Qualcomm and Intel, the piece noted.
“This industry is starting to explode,” said Mr Jimenez,
adding that he was close to recruiting a “compliance tsar” to oversee a wide
range of other partnerships and programmes to strengthen appropriate use of
medicines.Jimenez stressed that Novartis would still need to work closely with
regulators and doctors to overcome any concerns, and negotiate an exclusive
contract with Proteus in order to expand the approach. But he was confident
that such approaches to boost compliance would be widespread in the future.
implants linked to cancer in animal
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting
microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting
doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients' medical records almost
instantly. The FDA found "reasonable assurance" the device was safe,
and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top "innovative
technologies."neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned
this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s,
stated that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some lab
mice and rats.
"The transponders were the cause of the tumors,"
said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining the findings
of a 1996 study he led.cancer specialists reviewed the research for The
Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not
necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they
would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further
research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in
people.date, about 2,000 radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips have
been implanted in humans worldwide, according to VeriChip Corp. The company,
which sees a target market of 45 million Americans for its medical monitoring
chips, insists the devices are safe.
"We stand by our implantable products which have been
approved by the FDA and/or other U.S. regulatory authorities," said Scott
Silverman, chairman and chief executive officer of the Delray Beach, Fla.
company.was "not aware of any studies that have resulted in malignant
tumors" in laboratory animals, but he added that millions of pets have
been implanted with microchips, without reports of significant problems.FDA
also stands by its approval of the technology, but declined repeated AP
requests to specify what studies it reviewed before approving the
implants.agency is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services,
which, at the time of VeriChip's approval, was headed by Tommy Thompson. Two
weeks after the device's approval took effect on Jan. 10, 2005, Thompson left
his Cabinet post, and by July was a board member of VeriChip Corp. and its
parent company, Applied Digital Solutions. He was compensated in cash and stock
options., until recently a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential
nomination, says he had no personal relationship with the company as the
VeriChip was being evaluated, and played no role in FDA's approval.making no
mention of the findings on animal tumors was a June report by the ethics
committee of the American Medical Association, which touted the benefits of
implantable RFID devices.committee members reviewed, or even been aware of, the
literature on cancer in chipped animals?, said Dr. Steven Stack, an AMA board
member.results Published in veterinary and toxicology journals between 1996 and
2006, the studies found that lab mice and rats injected with microchips
sometimes developed subcutaneous "sarcomas" - malignant tumors, most
of them encasing the implants.
A 2006 study in France detected tumors in 4.1 percent of
1,260 microchipped mice. This was one of six studies in which the scientists
did not set out to find microchip-induced cancer but noticed the growths
incidentally. They were testing compounds on behalf of chemical and
pharmaceutical companies; but they ruled out the compounds as the tumors'
cause.
In 1997, a study in Germany found cancers in 1 percent of
4,279 chipped mice. The tumors "are clearly due to the implanted
microchips," the authors wrote.accompanied the findings. "Blind leaps
from the detection of tumors to the prediction of human health risk should be avoided,"
one study cautioned. Also, because none of the studies had a control group of
animals that did not get chips, the normal rate of tumors cannot be determined
and compared to the rate with chips implanted., specialists at some pre-eminent
cancer institutions said the findings raised red flags.
"There's no way in the world, having read this
information, that I would have one of those chips implanted in my skin, or in
one of my family members," said Dr. Robert Benezra, head of the Cancer
Biology Genetics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New
York.humans are implanted on a large scale, he said, testing should be done on
larger animals, such as dogs or monkeys. Sarcomas are life-threatening, he
said, "and given the preliminary animal data, it looks to me that there's
definitely cause for concern.". George Demetri, director of the Center for
Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said
even though the tumor incidences were "reasonably small," the
research underscored "certainly real risks" in RFID implants.humans,
sarcomas, which strike connective tissues, can range from the highly curable to
"tumors that are incredibly aggressive and can kill people in three to six
months," he said.the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, a leader in mouse genetics
research and the initiation of cancer, Dr. Oded Foreman, a forensic
pathologist, also reviewed the studies at the AP's request. Noting that control
mice, which had received no test chemicals, also developed the cancers, he
said: "That might be a little hint that something real is happening
here.". Cheryl London, a veterinarian oncologist at Ohio State University,
noted it's easier to cause cancer in mice than people. "So it may be that
what you're seeing in mice represents an exaggerated phenomenon of what may occur
in people."of thousands of dogs have been chipped, she said, and
veterinary pathologists haven't reported outbreaks of related sarcomas.
(Published reports detailing malignant tumors in two chipped dogs turned up in
AP's four-month examination of research on chips and health. In one dog, the
researchers said cancer appeared linked to the presence of the embedded chip;
in the other, the cancer's cause was uncertain.), London saw a need for a
20-year study of chipped canines. Dr. Chand Khanna, a veterinary oncologist at
the National Cancer Institute, also backed such a study, saying current
evidence "does suggest some reason to be concerned about tumor
formations.", the animal study findings should be disclosed to anyone
considering a chip implant, the cancer specialists agreed.
wins approval
product that VeriChip Corp. won approval for use in humans is
an electronic capsule the size of two grains of rice. Generally, it is
implanted with a syringe into the anesthetized upper arm. When scanned, it
transmits a code that allows medics to access a patient's medical records.
VeriChip Corp. sees an initial market of diabetics and people with heart
conditions or Alzheimer's disease.the FDA review literature on microchip
implants and animal cancer before approving the VeriChip?. Katherine Albrecht,
a privacy advocate and RFID expert, asked shortly after VeriChip's approval
what evidence the agency had reviewed. When FDA declined to provide
information, she filed a Freedom of Information Act request, and eventually received
a letter stating there were no documents matching her request.
"The public relies on the FDA to evaluate all the data
and make sure the devices it approves are safe," she says, "but if
they're not doing that, who's covering our backs?"last year, Albrecht
unearthed three studies noting cancerous tumors in some chipped mice and rats,
plus a reference in another study to a chipped dog with a tumor. She forwarded
them to the AP, which subsequently found three additional mice studies with
similar findings, plus another report of a chipped dog with a tumor.if it had
taken these studies into account, the FDA said VeriChip documents were being
kept confidential to protect trade secrets. After AP filed a FOIA request, the
FDA made available for a phone interview Anthony Watson, who was in charge of
the VeriChip approval process.
"At the time we reviewed this, I don't remember seeing
anything like that," he said of animal studies linking microchips to
cancer.added: "The few articles from the literature that did discuss
adverse tissue reactions similar to those in the articles you provided,
describe the responses as foreign body reactions that are typical of other
implantable devices. The balance of the data provided in the submission
supported approval of the device.". Neil Lipman, director of the Research
Animal Resource Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, said microchips aren't like
pacemakers, which are vital to keeping someone alive, "so at this stage,
the payoff doesn't justify the risks."
Thompson speaks
what of former HHS secretary Thompson?asked what role, if
any, he played in VeriChip's approval, Thompson replied: "I had nothing to
do with it. And if you look back at my record, you will find that there has
never been any improprieties whatsoever."vigorously campaigned for
electronic medical records and health-care technology both as governor of
Wisconsin and at HHS. While in President Bush's Cabinet, he formed a
"medical innovation" task force, partnering FDA with companies
developing information technologies.a "Medical Innovation Summit" on
Oct. 20, 2004, Lester Crawford, the FDA's acting commissioner, thanked the
secretary for getting the agency "deeply involved in the use of new
information technology to help prevent medication error." One notable
example: "the implantable chips and scanners of the VeriChip system our
agency approved last week."joining the company, Thompson received options
on 166,667 shares of VeriChip Corp. stock, and options on an additional 100,000
shares of stock from its parent company, according to SEC records. He also
received $40,000 in cash in 2005 and again in 2006, the filings show.Project on
Government Oversight called Thompson's actions "unacceptable" even
though they did not violate what the independent watchdog group calls weak
conflict-of-interest laws., who left VeriChip Corp. in March, is a partner at a
Washington law firm that was paid $1.2 million for legal services it provided
the chip maker in 2005 and 2006, according to SEC filings
Microchip Implants, Mind Control, and Cybernetics
1948 Norbert Weiner published a book, Cybernetics, defined as
a neurological communication and control theory already in use in small circles
at that time. Yoneji Masuda, "Father of the Information Society,"
stated his concern in 1980 that our liberty is threatened Orwellian-style by
cybernetic technology totally unknown to most people. This technology links the
brains of people via implanted microchips to satellites controlled by
ground-based supercomputers.first brain implants were surgically inserted in
1974 in the state of Ohio, USA and also in Stockholm, Sweden. Brain electrodes
were inserted into the skulls of babies in 1946 without the knowledge of their
parents. In the 1950s and 60s, electrical implants were inserted into the brains
of animals and humans, especially in the U.S., during research into behavior
modification, and brain and body functioning. Mind control (MC) methods were
used in attempts to change human behavior and attitudes. Influencing brain
functions became an important goal of military and intelligence services.years
ago brain implants showed up in X-rays the size of one centimeter. Subsequent
implants shrunk to the size of a grain of rice. They were made of silicon,
later still of gallium arsenide. Today they are small enough to be inserted
into the neck or back, and also intravenously in different parts of the body
during surgical operations, with or without the consent of the subject. It is
now almost impossible to detect or remove them.is technically possible for every
newborn to be injected with a microchip, which could then function to identify
the person for the rest of his or her life. Such plans are secretly being
discussed in the U.S. without any public airing of the privacy issues involved.
In Sweden, Prime Minister Olof Palme gave permission in 1973 to implant
prisoners, and Data Inspection's ex-Director General Jan Freese revealed that
nursing-home patients were implanted in the mid-1980s. The technology is
revealed in the 1972:47 Swedish state report, Statens Officiella Utradninger
(SOU).human beings can be followed anywhere. Their brain functions can be
remotely monitored by supercomputers and even altered through the changing of
frequencies. Guinea pigs in secret experiments have included prisoners, soldiers,
mental patients, handicapped children, deaf and blind people, homosexuals,
single women, the elderly, school children, and any group of people considered
"marginal" by the elite experimenters. The published experiences of
prisoners in Utah State Prison, for example, are shocking to the conscience.'s
microchips operate by means of low-frequency radio waves that target them. With
the help of satellites, the implanted person can be tracked anywhere on the
globe. Such a technique was among a number tested in the Iraq war, according to
Dr. Carl Sanders, who invented the intelligence-manned interface (IMI) biotic,
which is injected into people. (Earlier during the Vietnam War, soldiers were
injected with the Rambo chip, designed to increase adrenaline flow into the
bloodstream.) The 20-billion-bit/second supercomputers at the U.S. National
Security Agency (NSA) could now "see and hear" what soldiers
experience in the battlefield with a remote monitoring system (RMS).a
5-micromillimeter microchip (the diameter of a strand of hair is 50
micromillimeters) is placed into optical nerve of the eye, it draws
neuroimpulses from the brain that embody the experiences, smells, sights, and
voice of the implanted person. Once transferred and stored in a computer, these
neuroimpulses can be projected back to the person’s brain via the microchip to
be reexperienced. Using a RMS, a land-based computer operator can send
electromagnetic messages (encoded as signals) to the nervous system, affecting
the target's performance. With RMS, healthy persons can be induced to see
hallucinations and to hear voices in their heads.thought, reaction, hearing,
and visual observation causes a certain neurological potential, spikes, and
patterns in the brain and its electromagnetic fields, which can now be decoded
into thoughts, pictures, and voices. Electromagnetic stimulation can therefore
change a person's brainwaves and affect muscular activity, causing painful
muscular cramps experienced as torture.NSA's electronic surveillance system can
simultaneously follow and handle millions of people. Each of us has a unique
bioelectrical resonance frequency in the brain, just as we have unique
fingerprints. With electromagnetic frequency (EMF) brain stimulation fully
coded, pulsating electromagnetic signals can be sent to the brain, causing the
desired voice and visual effects to be experienced by the target. This is a
form of electronic warfare. U.S. astronauts were implanted before they were
sent into space so their thoughts could be followed and all their emotions
could be registered 24 hours a day.Washington Post reported in May 1995 that
Prince William of Great Britain was implanted at the age of 12. Thus, if he
were ever kidnapped, a radio wave with a specific frequency could be targeted
to his microchip. The chip’s signal would be routed through a satellite to the
computer screen of police headquarters, where the Prince’s movements could be
followed. He could actually be located anywhere on the globe.mass media has not
reported that an implanted person's privacy vanishes for the rest of his or her
life. S/he can be manipulated in many ways. Using different frequencies, the
secret controller of this equipment can even change a person's emotional life.
S/he can be made aggressive or lethargic. Sexuality can be artificially
influenced. Thought signals and subconscious thinking can be read, dreams
affected and even induced, all without the knowledge or consent of the
implanted person.perfect cyber-soldier can thus be created. This secret
technology has been used by military forces in certain NATO countries since the
1980s without civilian and academic populations having heard anything about it.
Thus, little information about such invasive mind-control systems is available
in professional and academic journals.NSA's Signals Intelligence group can
remotely monitor information from human brains by decoding the evoked
potentials (3.50HZ, 5 milliwatt) emitted by the brain. Prisoner experimentees
in both Gothenburg, Sweden and Vienna, Austria have been found to have evident
brain lesions. Diminished blood circulation and lack of oxygen in the right
temporal frontal lobes result where brain implants are usually operative. A
Finnish experimentee experienced brain atrophy and intermittent attacks of
unconsciousness due to lack of oxygen.control techniques can be used for
political purposes. The goal of mind controllers today is to induce the
targeted persons or groups to act against his or her own convictions and best
interests. Zombified individuals can even be programmed to murder and remember
nothing of their crime afterward. Alarming examples of this phenomenon can be
found in the U.S.“silent war” is being conducted against unknowing civilians
and soldiers by military and intelligence agencies. Since 1980, electronic
stimulation of the brain (ESB) has been secretly used to control people
targeted without their knowledge or consent. All international human rights
agreements forbid nonconsensual manipulation of human beings - even in prisons,
not to speak of civilian populations. an initiative of U.S. Senator John Glenn,
discussions commenced in January 1997 about the dangers of radiating civilian
populations. Targeting people’s brain functions with electromagnetic fields and
beams (from helicopters and airplanes, satellites, from parked vans,
neighboring houses, telephone poles, electrical appliances, mobile phones, TV,
radio, etc.) is part of the radiation problem that should be addressed in
democratically elected government bodies.addition to electronic MC, chemical methods
have also been developed. Mind-altering drugs and different smelling gasses
affecting brain function negatively can be injected into air ducts or water
pipes. Bacteria and viruses have also been tested this way in several
countries.'s supertechnology, connecting our brain functions via microchips (or
even without them, according to the latest technology) to computers via
satellites in the U.S. or Israel, poses the gravest threat to humanity. The
latest supercomputers are powerful enough to monitor the whole world’s
population. What will happen when people are tempted by false premises to allow
microchips into their bodies? One lure will be a microchip identity card.
Compulsory legislation has even been secretly proposed in the U.S. to
criminalize removal of an ID implant.we ready for the robotization of mankind
and the total elimination of privacy, including freedom of thought? How many of
us would want to cede our entire life, including our most secret thoughts, to
Big Brother? Yet the technology exists to create a totalitarian New World
Order. Covert neurological communication systems are in place to counteract
independent thinking and to control social and political activity on behalf of
self-serving private and military interests.our brain functions are already
connected to supercomputers by means of radio implants and microchips, it will
be too late for protest. This threat can be defeated only by educating the
public, using available literature on biotelemetry and information exchanged at
international congresses.reason this technology has remained a state secret is
the widespread prestige of the psychiatric Diagnostic Statistical Manual IV
produced by the U.S. American Psychiatric Association (APA) and printed in 18
languages. Psychiatrists working for U.S. intelligence agencies no doubt
participated in writing and revising this manual. This psychiatric
"bible" covers up the secret development of MC technologies by
labeling some of their effects as symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.of mind
control experimentation are thus routinely diagnosed, knee-jerk fashion, as
mentally ill by doctors who learned the DSM “symptom” list in medical school.
Physicians have not been schooled that patients may be telling the truth when
they report being targeted against their will or being used as guinea pigs for
electronic, chemical and bacteriological forms of psychological warfare.
is running out for changing the direction of military
medicine, and ensuring the future of human freedom
microchip implant technology medicine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved
an implantable computer chip that can pass along a patient's medical details to
doctors, providing easy access to individual medical records.Digital Solutions,
which manufactures VeriChips, radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips
the size of a grain of rice, have already been used to identify lost pets and
livestock. But this marks the first time the FDA has approved the use of the
device in humans for medical purposes.microchip is inserted under the skin of
the arm or hand with a syringe in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes
and leaves no visible marks. The dormant chip stores a code similar to a UPC
code on products sold in retail stores. At a doctor's office, unique16-digit
codes are stamped onto chips. Emergency-room personnel and ambulance crews
equipped with handheld radio scanners would be able to read the number on the
chip. When a scanner passes over a chip, its code reveals patient-specific
information such as known allergies, blood type, and prior treatments. The chip
does not contain any records, but with the identifying number, healthcare
providers would be able to retrieve critical medical data stored in computers.
The records could be easily updated.Mexico, more than 1,000 scannable chips
have been implanted in patients. The chip's serial number pulls up the
patients' blood type and other medical information. But the chips can be used
for more than just medical purposes. Mexico's attorney general and nearly 200
people working in his office have been implanted with chips so they can access
secure areas containing sensitive documents related to Mexico's drug cartels.
Similarly, British company Surge IT Solutions recently signed an agreement with
VeriChip to use the technology to control access to government facilities.goers
in Barcelona, Spain, now use a similar chip like a smart card to speed their
drink orders and payments. About 50 patrons of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona
have had the chip implanted so they wouldn't have to carry around
identification and credit cards.Digital Solutions has tried to deflect privacy
concerns by arguing that the implantation of chips is voluntary and the only
records linked to a VeriChip will be those authorized by the person with the
chip. But critics fear that eventually employers, government authorities, and
others may dictate how the technology is used. For example, soldiers could be
required by the government to have a chip implanted for military identification
purposes.scanners cannot read the passive chips from more than a few feet away,
but design advances or the addition of a separate power source for the chip
could expand those ranges and make possible the tracking of individuals with
the chips.privacy fears and possible technical glitches, such microchips will
be added to U.S. passports this year. E-passports, also dubbed "smart
passports," promise to deter theft and forgeries, as well as speed up
immigration checks at airports and borders. The State Department recently asked
four technology companies to create proposals for introducing e-passports to
the public. The agency will begin issuing them to citizens by spring, starting
with people renewing or seeking new passports through the Los Angeles Passport
Agency. A State Department spokesperson said the department plans to produce
more than 1 million e-passports by the end of 2005 and by 2006 it expects all
new passports to feature the microchips.RFID microchips store basic data,
including the passport holder's name, date of birth, and place of birth. They
hold 64 kilobytes of memory, enough room to store biometric data including
digital fingerprints, photos, and iris scans. The chips are designed to last 10
years and incorporate digital signature and encryption technology. The State
Department and the Department of Homeland Security plan to install facial
recognition systems at immigration checkpoints in airports and elsewhere in
about one year. Facial recognition scanners will automatically compare a
person's face to the data about their face stored in the RFID chips, making
sure they match.chips, which will be embedded in passport covers, can instantly
broadcast their data to immigration officials with the right scanning equipment
from a few feet away. This would allow officials to compare the information on
the chip with the rest of the passport and the person carrying it.
VeriChip Planning Implantable Glucose Monitoring Device; The
device, embedded on an RFID chip, could face an uphill battle in the face of
cancer reports.
about VeriChip
VeriChip, along with its parent company Digital Angel and
partner Receptors, is developing a bio-sensing device that would be included in
a subdermal RFID chip that could lead to diabetics no longer having to stick
themselves with a needle to monitor glucose levels.companies will host an event
in New York Dec. 5 to announce plans to build a prototype self-contained
implantable device that will have the ability to measure glucose levels in the
human body., despite the possibility of doing away with a lifetime of needle
pricks for diabetics, VeriChip may be fighting an uphill battle. In September,
the Associated Press ran a story that said that both VeriChip and the Food and
Drug Administration failed to mention a series of veterinary and toxicology
studies dating to the mid-1990s that showed VeriChip's implants had caused
malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.to the AP article, from 1996 to
2006, a number of studies reported incidences of malignant tumors in lab mice
and rats that had been implanted with RFID chips; in some cases the tumors
completely enveloped the chips.
the microchip(VeriChip) implants
VeriChip can provide medical and identity information when
scanned., his mom Leslie and his dad Jeffrey are the first volunteer test subjects
for a new, implantable computer device called VeriChip. Later this spring,
pending Food and Drug Administration approval, doctors will load a wide-bore
needle with a microchip containing a few kilobytes of silicon memory and a tiny
radio transmitter and inject it under the skin of their left arms, where it
will serve as a medical identification device. It sounds like science fiction.
(Remember the Borg on Star Trek? Resistance is futile!) But VeriChip is quite
real. The Jacobs family could be the first in a new generation of
computer-enhanced human beings.his school uniform and his plump, pinchable
cheeks, Derek Jacobs of Boca Raton, Fla., looks like an ordinary youngster. But
looks can deceive. When he was 12, Microsoft certified Derek as a qualified systems
engineer, one of the youngest ever. At 13 he was running his own
computer-consulting company. Now he’s 14, and what’s Derek doing for an encore?
He’s becoming a cyborg-part man-child, part machine.
Derek, his mom Leslie and his dad Jeffrey are the first
volunteer test subjects for a new, implantable computer device called VeriChip.
Later this spring, pending Food and Drug Administration approval, doctors will
load a wide-bore needle with a microchip containing a few kilobytes of silicon
memory and a tiny radio transmitter and inject it under the skin of their left
arms, where it will serve as a medical identification device. It sounds like
science fiction. (Remember the Borg on Star Trek? Resistance is futile!) But
VeriChip is quite real. The Jacobs family could be the first in a new
generation of computer-enhanced human beings. In some respects Derek is a
regular eighth-grader. He’s quiet and polite. He plays the drums. He used to be
on the swim team before he quit to make time for his computer business. He
remembers vividly when he first saw VeriChip on the Today show. “I thought it
was great technology,” he says. “I wanted to be a part of it.” And when Derek
sets his mind to a problem, he generally solves it. “Derek stood up and said to
me, ‘Mom, I want to be the first kid implanted with the chip,’” remembers
Leslie Jacobs, an advertising executive at Florida Design magazine. “He kept
bugging me to call the company until I finally broke down.”
In the case of the Jacobses, that could be a lifesaver. Derek
has allergies to common antibiotics, and Jeffrey is weakened from years of
treatment for Hodgkin’s disease. A few years ago, he was in a serious car
accident; and when he got to the hospital, he was in no shape to explain his
condition to the staff. “The advantage of the chip is that the information is
available at the time of need,” Jeffrey explains. “It would speak for me, give
me a voice when I don’t have one.”operation to insert the chip is simple. “It
takes about seven seconds,” says Dr. Richard Seelig, the company’s
medical-applications director, exaggerating only slightly. An antiseptic swab,
a local anesthetic, an injection and a Band-Aid-that’s all it takes. Once the skin
heals, Seelig says, the chip is completely invisible, and the Jacobses will
hardly know it’s there. “The chip is fully biocompatible,” Bolton says. “No
body fluids can get in, and nothing can be loosened or come out.”Digital
Solutions-which is trademarking the phrase “Get Chipped!”-has big plans for its
little device. In the next few years, it wants to add sensors that will read
your vital signs-pulse, temperature, blood sugar and so on-and a satellite
receiver that can track where you are. The company makes a pager-like gadget
called Digital Angel that does both those things, and its engineers are doing
their darnedest to cram Digital Angel’s functions into a package small enough
to implant. Once they do, VeriChip will be very powerful indeed. That’s one of
the reasons the Jacobses want to get involved. “There are endless
possibilities,” says Derek. “For me it’s marvelous,” says Leslie. “Every day I
worry about my husband. We definitely feel it will make us all feel more
secure.”
Security is part of the VeriChip business plan. The company
has already signed a deal with the California department of corrections to
track the movements of parolees using Digital Angel. Seelig believes VeriChip
could function as a theftproof, counterfeit-proof ID, like having a driver’s
license embedded under your skin. He suggests that airline crews could wear one
to ensure that terrorists don’t infiltrate the cockpit in disguise. “I travel
quite a bit,” he says, “and I want to make sure the pilots in that plane belong
there.”the airlines or government really require pilots to get chipped? “I
think we have a right to demand that,” says Seelig. “Our lives are in their
hands.” It sounds extreme, but there are precedents. In the early ’90s several
states considered laws that would have required female child abusers and women
on welfare to wear birth-control implants. The proposals were not very popular.
“There’s a feeling that technology has outpaced the policy process,” says
Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American
Scientists. “We aren’t in a position to apply these new devices with the wisdom
and prudence that is needed.”or not, implant technology is racing ahead with
bionic speed. Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of
Reading in England, is working on the next step. In a few weeks, he will
receive an implant that will wirelessly connect the nerves in his arm to a PC.
The computer will record the activity of his nervous system and stimulate the
nerves to produce small movements and sensations; such an implant could
eventually help a person suffering from paralysis to move parts of the body the
brain can’t reach. If all goes well, Warwick will put a companion chip in his
wife Irena and let the two implants communicate with each other. “If I move my
finger, she’ll feel something,” he explains. “We’ll be closer than anybody’s
been before-nervous system to nervous system.”are plenty of skeptics, but
Jeffrey Jacobs is not one of them. “People have been worried about Big Brother
for years,” he says. “The three of us want to be part of not just this new
technology but an evolution of humanity.”FDA is expected to approve the
Jacobses’ implants within two months, and there are other ways to speed up the
evolution. Two weeks ago, Applied Digital Solutions signed a deal to distribute
VeriChips in Brazil, where kidnapping has become epidemic, especially among the
rich and powerful. Government officials hope that VeriChips implanted in people
considered at high risk could be used to track victims via satellite. “Here [in
the U.S.] we’re still dealing with FDA and privacy and civil-liberties issues,”
says Bolton. “But we’re not stopping. We’re going into South America right
now!” Technology has a way of moving faster than legislation, and if it comes
down to a race between cyborgs and Senators, guess who will win? Resistance is
futile.
microchip technology in medicine
first bites of pizza fall into your eager stomach. All feels
great, until you grab that extra slice and your gastric pacemaker awakens.tiny
device, which doctors sewed onto your gut, watches what you eat. Whenever you
overindulge, a faint shock makes you too ill for more.
Science fiction? No. The gastric pacemaker exists, and
it's just one of many medical prototypes that run on microchips from Texas
Instruments <#"522422.files/image001.gif">
Using TI's digital signal processor controller, the
Boston <#"522422.files/image002.gif">closeup
of the Boston Digital Arm.device still lacks the control needed for pro sports
or safecracking, but it's an honest-to-goodness bionic arm.
"The cells sit right on top of the chips and talk
to one another," said Dr. Dennis Stone, vice president for technology
development at the Dallas hospital and research center.
"We're at the dawn of something huge, and Dallas
is right in the middle of it."promise of microchip medicine lies not only
in bionic body parts, but also long-term care for chronic problems.same TI
chips that turn plastic boxes into cellphones can also turn pacemakers into
cellphones.devices already reduce arduous office visits by sending information
directly from a patient's chest to a doctor's computer. A smart pacemaker may
someday sense a pending heart attack, call 911 and use a built-in GPS
<#"522422.files/image003.gif">
TI's digital signal processor controller, the Boston Digital
Arm gives amputees greater movement.implants may produce fewer side effects
when treating many conditions that drugs treat today. Blood thinners,
antidepressants, painkillers: Those and other drugs work by affecting chemical
levels inside your body. Smart mechanical devices, in theory, could eliminate
the imprecision by telling your body exactly how to fix itself.
market
date, the total annual sales of medical microchips by all
companies is just $2 billion.Instruments estimates it generated less than $200
million of its $14 billion revenue, but the potential market is enormous.world
market for medical devices is $100 billion and growing by double-digit
increments as machines do more and more. World drug sales exceeded $600 billion
last year.execs think they're particularly well-positioned to infiltrate those
markets.same attributes that suit chips for cellphones and other mobile devices
- small size, low power consumption - suit them for human bodies.chips
also markets analog chips, chips that detect not ones and
zeros but the vibrations, chemicals and electrical pulses the body uses to
control itself.
"We may design custom chips once a technology nears
major production, but researchers mostly use our existing products. We're
getting a shot at a big new market without risking too many research
dollars," said Doug Rasor, TI's vice president for emerging medical
technologies.does spend money looking for talent and supplying its existing
chips to promising researchers. The company says it's easier to get in at the
ground floor than to win converts who have designed products with chips from
other companies.. Rasor says it may take several years for the medical
technology division to land a runaway hit. Testing requirements tend to slow
medical progress, which is why the decoding of the human genome has yet to
bring many new drugs to market.devices face fewer regulatory hurdles than
drugs, though. TI hopes to cut the lapse between great idea and marketed
product to three years. It seems an eternity to computer researchers but an eye
blink compared with drugs, which generally take more than a decade to reach
pharmacy shelves.
"Devices offer much faster time to market than
pharmaceuticals," said Mir Imran, chief executive of InCube Laboratories
and a major backer of the gastric pacemaker. "Today's new devices will be
helping patients when today's new chemicals are still many years from
government approval.
Conclusions
Microchips
- The Future Of Medication
Do you ever forget to take your medication/pills? Well this
future device
created by MicroCHIPS, Inc., has developed a device that can be preloaded with
up to 100 doses of medicine, implanted in the body and programmed to administer
the drug through wireless signals. The new system has been designed primarily
to help deliver medicines that are less effective when taken orally. It has
been successful in tests with dogs. And should be available in 5 years.another
microchip is one that is in the pills. the chip is 1mm wide, once swallowed and
digested, wireless signals are sent through the patients cell phone to their
doctor so they can monitor the patient making sure they took their medication
and monitoring complications. This is currently being tested in the UK.believe
that having a microchip that will give you your medication will be good and can
help a lot of people. But being monitored by people is a violation of privacy. Only certain people should be subject
to this.
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<http://www.allbusiness.com/information-management-journal/41021-1.html>
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Gazette (West Virginia)
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Dallas Morning News