Oracle corp aims to make chip implants 'available to all' in UK
banana | 15.06.2005 12:29 | Analysis | Health | Technology
The world's largest maker of database software, Oracle, has admitted in a major newspaper that its aim is to make microchip implants "available to everybody".
Oracle, which makes huge amounts of money from the UK NHS, including with its 'patient information system' - and which spends millions on PR in favour of the idea that 'health depends on IT' - is saying that its aim is to make MICROCHIP IMPLANTS "available to everybody".
This has been openly proclaimed by Larry Nettle, Oracle's European healthcare director, who used to work for weapons firm Lockheed.
The 'Sunday Times' has suggested on its front page that many millions of people in the UK may, in the not too distant future, be fitted with such implants. (The figure they give is 17 million, which they say is the number of people in the UK who are chronically ill, i.e. about a third of the population).
The following article from the 'Sunday Times' is online at:
***BEGIN ARTICLE***
June 12, 2005
Patients get 999 chip implants
Jonathan Carr-Brown
DOCTORS are to implant computerised sensors into patients to enable them to monitor chronic conditions minute-by-minute from miles away.
The sensors detect tiny changes in metabolism and transmit data, via a mobile phone, to the patient's doctor.
Scientists at Imperial College London who invented the device believe it will enable some patients to lead a normal life while being kept under constant watch.
It has the potential to be developed into a complete body sensor that could be implanted into normally healthy people to pick up early signs of disease.
The sensor, which includes a Pentium microprocessor just 2mm square, will initially be implanted in diabetics. Trials will begin by Christmas at St Mary's hospital, London. The implant will be programmed to send an emergency text message via a mobile phone, alerting medical staff to changes in blood-sugar levels.
If the problem is serious, the patient will be given immediate medical advice. Once patients become familiar with the system, they could monitor their condition themselves.
The only restriction is that the computer's low power output means that it needs a receiver - generally a mobile phone - to be within a metre of the patient to pick up the sensor's wireless signal from its miniaturised antenna.
Chris Toumazou, director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial, is hoping eventually to link the sensor to an insulin pump that can be operated remotely by a doctor. The sensor could also be used to protect people with heart and respiratory diseases. The researchers are exploring ways to detect chemical changes in a patient's blood.
"The computer in your body can take away anxiety and allow medics to take control of your care from miles away," said Toumazou.
More than 17.5m people in Britain have one or more chronic diseases of varying severity - a figure that is set to soar as the elderly population grows over the coming decades. If many of these patients could be turned into experts monitoring their own conditions with minimal intervention by doctors or nurses, it could free up significant NHS resources.
The aim is also to develop the system so that the sensor can provide prompts to patients to take medication.
Pathology departments are under particular pressure because of the increase in the number of chronically ill patients who need regular blood tests.
Oracle, the technology company that is backing the project, has designed the software to be compatible with the NHS's new £6.5 billion computer system.
This will allow the data to be stored on a patient's record and accessed by healthcare staff nationwide. Jeremy Nettle, the European healthcare director of Oracle, said: "These devices are going to give patients who have to make regular visits to GPs and nurses much greater control and independence."
He added: "Our aim is eventually to get the cost of each sensor down to £1 so that the technology is available to everybody."
The Imperial team has developed four other prototypes that rest on a patient's skin. They include sensors to detect heart disease, high blood pressure and hypothermia and motion sensors, used to monitor housebound old people.
Scientists in America implanted microchips containing medical records under the skin of human guinea pigs last year. The records could then be read by a doctor using a scanner.
Another American company has placed a microchip on a pill bottle, which plays back spoken prescription advice through a speaker.
***END ARTICLE***
This has been openly proclaimed by Larry Nettle, Oracle's European healthcare director, who used to work for weapons firm Lockheed.
The 'Sunday Times' has suggested on its front page that many millions of people in the UK may, in the not too distant future, be fitted with such implants. (The figure they give is 17 million, which they say is the number of people in the UK who are chronically ill, i.e. about a third of the population).
The following article from the 'Sunday Times' is online at:
***BEGIN ARTICLE***
June 12, 2005
Patients get 999 chip implants
Jonathan Carr-Brown
DOCTORS are to implant computerised sensors into patients to enable them to monitor chronic conditions minute-by-minute from miles away.
The sensors detect tiny changes in metabolism and transmit data, via a mobile phone, to the patient's doctor.
Scientists at Imperial College London who invented the device believe it will enable some patients to lead a normal life while being kept under constant watch.
It has the potential to be developed into a complete body sensor that could be implanted into normally healthy people to pick up early signs of disease.
The sensor, which includes a Pentium microprocessor just 2mm square, will initially be implanted in diabetics. Trials will begin by Christmas at St Mary's hospital, London. The implant will be programmed to send an emergency text message via a mobile phone, alerting medical staff to changes in blood-sugar levels.
If the problem is serious, the patient will be given immediate medical advice. Once patients become familiar with the system, they could monitor their condition themselves.
The only restriction is that the computer's low power output means that it needs a receiver - generally a mobile phone - to be within a metre of the patient to pick up the sensor's wireless signal from its miniaturised antenna.
Chris Toumazou, director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial, is hoping eventually to link the sensor to an insulin pump that can be operated remotely by a doctor. The sensor could also be used to protect people with heart and respiratory diseases. The researchers are exploring ways to detect chemical changes in a patient's blood.
"The computer in your body can take away anxiety and allow medics to take control of your care from miles away," said Toumazou.
More than 17.5m people in Britain have one or more chronic diseases of varying severity - a figure that is set to soar as the elderly population grows over the coming decades. If many of these patients could be turned into experts monitoring their own conditions with minimal intervention by doctors or nurses, it could free up significant NHS resources.
The aim is also to develop the system so that the sensor can provide prompts to patients to take medication.
Pathology departments are under particular pressure because of the increase in the number of chronically ill patients who need regular blood tests.
Oracle, the technology company that is backing the project, has designed the software to be compatible with the NHS's new £6.5 billion computer system.
This will allow the data to be stored on a patient's record and accessed by healthcare staff nationwide. Jeremy Nettle, the European healthcare director of Oracle, said: "These devices are going to give patients who have to make regular visits to GPs and nurses much greater control and independence."
He added: "Our aim is eventually to get the cost of each sensor down to £1 so that the technology is available to everybody."
The Imperial team has developed four other prototypes that rest on a patient's skin. They include sensors to detect heart disease, high blood pressure and hypothermia and motion sensors, used to monitor housebound old people.
Scientists in America implanted microchips containing medical records under the skin of human guinea pigs last year. The records could then be read by a doctor using a scanner.
Another American company has placed a microchip on a pill bottle, which plays back spoken prescription advice through a speaker.
***END ARTICLE***
banana
e-mail:
banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Not Worried ( Yet )
15.06.2005 16:36
Sure, the technology used is going to be similar to that used in a 'Big Brother' implanting, but it's a question of what the technology does, it's purpose, and what control those implanted have over the technology and its use.
That such technology is available should come as no surprise. Whether it should worry us or not depends greatly on what the technology is used for.
The only potential concern is in being able to detect those who are implanted, and thus be able to identify those people as having chronic illness.
Maybe I'm missing something more worrisome ?
JB
they admit they plan to chip millions of people - time to worry, surely? :-)
15.06.2005 18:14
Yes, I think you're missing a lot, JB. Western bosses still propagandise in terms of individual freedom. We should treat what they say, and indeed - especially! - the underlying concepts with which they try to befuddle minds, with total contempt. The point is what they do. Not that I am saying this excludes propagandising. It doesn't. The point is that the bosses do not in any way express the general interest.
It doesn't matter whether chip implantation is voluntary or not, for the first 5 million people or 17 million people or whatever. Or rather, it's a tactical public relations issue for the bosses.
You say:
>>>it's a question of what the technology does, it's purpose, and what control those implanted
>>>have over the technology and its use".
Well sort of. Technology doesn't really do anything. I would say it is a question of who is doing what to whom, and why. Answers: Big Money aided by its governmental authorities is planning to carry out mass microchip implantation against millions of people, using the 'we're trying to help you' line. Which leaves why. To which the answer is: for greater surveillance and control.
(Doubtless it would be possible to imagine electronic communication of the results of physiological monitoring as a helpful and life-enriching thing in a free society, even if it would strike me as complete waste of time for a decent person to spend a lot of effort insisting on this possibility. But more importantly, we are not living in a free society or anything like it, so this is totally irrelevant to the issue of what is actually going on in THIS society in which we are living. Unless of course someone wants to argue that working class people have forced the development of this technology on the bosses as something that is basically a concession by the bosses, or even partly a concession - which is obviously not the case).
>>>That such technology is available should come as no surprise."
The use of electronic tags fed by devices carrying out chemical testing have been in the public domain for years. In a wearable rather than implantable form, they were used against people given non-custodial sentences in Tennessee as early as 1993. (Source: Ian Tillium's 1994 article at
>>>Whether it should worry us or not depends greatly on what the technology is used for."
It would be clearer to think in terms of the active voice, i.e. who is using it - and developing it - and why, rather than why it 'is used'.
I would advise working on the basis of the assumption that 'the bosses act in their own interests'.
When looking at particular ways they are changing the social environment, always to ask 'are they acting in their own interests here?' would indicate confusion and misapprehension. Do this with regard to the first few things one is considering, sure, but then generalise and apply lessons learnt... Not that there is (or should be) an end to this dialectic between critical understanding and critical learning this side of social revolution.
>>>The only potential concern is in being able to detect those who are implanted,
>>>and thus be able to identify those people as having chronic illness."
>>>Maybe I'm missing something more worrisome ?"
The illness line is just a marketing thing. The Oracle guy told it straighter when he talked about availability to "everybody". The alternative to anti-capitalist social revolution is capitalist technofascist technological revolution, and we are in the early stage of the latter already.
Regards,
banana
banana
1st they chipped the ill and I did nothing...
15.06.2005 21:10
Slowly slowly it creeps into public consciousness before we all accept it as 'normal' and for our own safety
I know who I am and if anybody else wants to know ask me don't scan me!
Oi!
.
16.06.2005 19:53
What activities could they monitor?
I guess it may eventually be a way for your boss to monitor your political activities and beliefs. Some employers demand access to your medical records. Maybe one day they'll be able to access information about your involvement in grassroots campaigns. I imagine employers like Walmart wouldn't take kindly to any sort of activity which might suggest you're not a robot.
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