Lives can be saved by the immediacy of microchips

Microchips can be a useful tool, especially when it comes to emergency situations where instant access to the right medical information can mean the difference between life and death. Needless to say, this is a sophisticated way of surveillance and has its role in various non-medical fields, may it be within the corporate world, or control of electronic devices, financial world and automation. It can be used to quickly gain access to your medical history and increase the probability of saving lives of people with various conditions like cardiac problems, diabetes, severe drug and food allergies amongst other things. These implants are particularly useful for people suffering from cognitive impairments like dementia.

However, one needs to consider serious implications like health related risks of implanting microchips, ethical issues related to patients’ information confidentiality. It is important to weigh up benefits and risks of using this technology in such patients, the advantages should ideally far outweigh the risks of not using such technology as part of the overall management plan of the patient. Family, care givers and professionals involved in managing such clients should consider inclusion of such practices along with other clinical and welfare matters.

Overall, I believe that microchipping does help to make a society open, transparent and advanced. However, in some cases it may risk human rights. On the other side it has its advantages and disadvantages in the field of health if done in the best interest of an individual patient. From Dr Shankar Srinivas Kuchibatla Consultant psychiatrist based in Dubai