Biometrics in Healthcare

Abstract

Biometrics is the discipline to measure physical human characteristics for the identification and authentication of an individual. Since ancient times, people have used voice, face, and other characteristics for the identification of an individual. With evolution, we take the individual characteristics like fingerprint scans, retina and iris images, etc., as inputs to the computer systems and then store or verify them with existing records. This report discusses biometrics and its recent roles found in the field of healthcare, medicine, genetics, and biotechnology. It includes the concept of biometrics, the system used for biometric recognition and its working, types of biometric systems, the different system algorithms applied, and system modules which are well illustrated with flow charts and block diagrams. Some of the health institutes in developed countries have started using biometric systems for checking patients and/or doctors. Biometry has enabled the proper organization and storage of the health records of individuals in medical institutes. Biometric authentication is also finding a distinct role in foiling medical claims fraud highlighting the advantages it. Even after processing via a very accurate biometric system, there is a chance of a false result due to some disease or injury to the body part subjected to biometry or faulty system leading to some error. There is also a possibility that the biometric system may harm our bodies. Moreover, biometric records need really tight system security to prevent any kind of misuse. Biometrics has a great potential to find a lot more uses in the field of healthcare. Many ideas are being proposed for implementation. In the future, biometrics can be used to detect potential disease and risks by using methods like adiposity measurement and Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV).