Implantable chip provides medical information, privacy worries.

2004 NOV 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medical milestone or privacy invasion? A tiny computer chip approved October 13, 2004, for implantation in a patient's arm can speed vital information about a patient's medical history to doctors and hospitals.

But critics warn that it could imperil the confidentiality of medical records.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that Applied Digital Solutions of Delray Beach, Florida, could market the VeriChip, an implantable computer chip about the size of a grain of rice, for medical purposes.

With the pinch of a syringe, the microchip is inserted under the skin in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes and leaves no stitches. Silently and invisibly, the dormant chip stores a code that releases patient-specific information when a scanner …