A study conducted by the University of California San Diego and Mexico’s Universidad Autonoma de Baja California and Hospital Central has found that biometric technology can accurately identify newborn babies for healthcare purposes such as vaccination, according to a report from Reclaim the Net (RTN).
“The present work describes the development and clinical testing of a fingerprint capture system for longitudinal biometric recognition of newborns and young children to support vaccination and clinical follow-up,” the study authors write.
The study, published by the US National Library of Medicine, followed 494 Mexican children from 2018 to 2019 and used fingerprinting to provide longitudinal biometric recognition.
The technology had a 77% success rate for babies up to three days old and a 96% success rate for four-day-olds and older, according to the true accept rate (TAR) measure, RTN notes.
When the top-ranked match score method was used, accuracy rose to 86% and 97%, respectively.
In light of these “optimistic” results, the researchers behind the technology are partnering with NEC, a company specializing in fingerprinting, to commercialize the device.
The authors also cited the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 16.9, which calls for “universal biometrics across all populations,” as justification for its use.
The authors concluded by stating that the biometric tools used in the study produced results that “support the growing body of evidence that biometrics can serve to improve the delivery of vital health care and vaccines for routine immunization or during global pandemics, enabling more effective and equitable benefits to those most in need.”
