Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

Pew says consumers prefer biometrics for patient matching, but hospitals have concerns

Healthcare IT News: Pew Charitable Trusts this week published a report on patient matching, examining it as a key challenge for healthcare's overall goal of more effective interoperability. In the study, Pew looked at the potential for biometrics and, through interviews with consumers and healthcare executives, determined that patients "overwhelmingly supported the use of biometrics."

Patient matching is an ongoing healthcare problem around the world made even more complex in the U.S. where law prohibits the sort of national identifier that countries including China, Israel and New Zealand have in place – though Pew was careful to point out that interoperability and record matching issues still exist in those nations to varying extents.

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