Reference no: EM133486144

Question 1. What are the pros and cons for using the smartcard or RFID? The pros to a smartcard would be that it acts like an ID, it's a card that patients carry around with them and allows physicians to see medications that have been prescribed, relevant health issues, and verifies a patient's identity as soon as the card is inserted (Smart Cards and Patients, 2013). Or in some cases, the smartcard is a QR code on a patient's phone that can be scanned by a provider.

Question 2. How would you balance the concerns related to the cons, while trying to incorporate its use into the healthcare system? The cons would be that some patients may worry about their sense of privacy being invaded, but the benefits outweigh the cons. Sometimes emergencies happen, and access to relevant health information faster could literally save a patient's life, their child's life, or their parent's life. Smartcards also have security authentication such as needing to enter a PIN code or facial recognition (SMART Health Cards, n.d.).

Question 3. Identify groups or individuals who could immediately benefit from the use of the technology, and why is that so? RFID can benefit infants to prevent abductions. My hospital uses RFID bands to track where infants are in the hospital, it helps prevent abductions. Whenever an ID band is not securely attached, it alarms the nurses to make sure the band hasn't been taken off, and to verify that the infant is in the mother's postpartum room. It also could help patients with dementia that are prone to wander. Last week where I live, we had an 80-year-old man escape from the nursing home next to where I work. Authorities searched for him for a few days, and eventually found him deceased about fifteen miles away. RFID could have saved this man's life and prevented him from escaping the nursing home.