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Fingerprint recognition to assist daily identification of radiotherapy patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

J.-E. Palmgren  and
T. Lahtinen
J.-E. Palmgren*
Affiliation:
Department of Oncology, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland
T. Lahtinen
Affiliation:
Department of Oncology, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland
*
Correspondence to: J.-E. Palmgren, Department of Oncology, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, FIN-70211, Kuopio, Finland. E-mail: jan-erik.palmgren@kuh.fi
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Abstract

A system to assist daily identification of radiotherapy patients and to prevent accidental exposures to mis-indentified patients was developed. The fingerprint-based biometric system was chosen because of its high sensitivity in identification and suitability for hospital use. In a 6-month survey, 85.7% of the daily treatment fractions were identified successfully; 5.5% of the unsuccessful identifications were overridden by the staff and the remaining 8.8% were due to poor-quality fingerprints. No false identifications occurred so that patient was identified as a different person. During the past 2.5 years and 47,000 treatment fractions, the system has been well accepted by the patients and radiation technologists and misidentified patients have not been treated since the installation.

Keywords

Fingerprint recognitionradiotherapypatient verificationmistreatmentbiometric identification
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 17 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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