Apple 5s Bio Metric Healthcare Credentialing
Healthcare Credentialing Possible with the iPhone 5s?
Now that the new iPhone 5s is out, I can tell you there is something that makes it truly unique, it is the bio-metric login and credentialing ring on the new phone. Apple iPhone 5c,
Why is this a game changer? Simple, you don’t have to type a pin code into your iPhone to login. Not only that, payments via the iTunes app store will be using the users thumb print. This this type of bio credentialing could also be applied to healthcare with Apples new technology. We would love to use this to technology to allow patients to check-in at doctors offices, think if the new iPhone was at a physicians front desk, and a patient would “thumb in”. No login, no staff selecting the patient, just walking into the physicians office and use your finger. From what I hear, the technology allows people to register multiple fingers, right hand and left. So the patient wouldn’t even have to remember what finger to use if all are registered. The thing about this technology which I believe restricts us from using this tech in the way that I am talking about is that the data about the finger prints only resides on the device. So this isn’t a cloud based service. So the way we would go about implementing the new bio-metrics credentialing is patients would walk into the doctors office with their own iPhone, and validate through our PHR that they are in the office via a thumb print, no login required.
Apple has not released the API to developers yet, but when it is available we will be looking into how to leverage it on the PHR to allow patients to “check-in” at the doctors office.
Also another interesting way that we could leverage this technology would be to allow patients to authorize co-payments.
If you want to see more about the iPhone 5s, you can checkout the keynote here.
Apple iPhone 5s vs Every Other Phone
There is a number of other amazing phones out there BUT none, I repeat, none of them have bio metric credentialing. Apple is pushing the boundary yet again on what is possible in a phone.
Apple 5s Bio Metric Healthcare Credentialing Possible?
So the answer is yes. But it would be dependent on Apple releasing an API for us to develop on.