Biometric-Assisted Unique Patient Identifier

ABSTRACT Over the years, healthcare institutions have relied on one or a combination of medical record number (MRN), demographics and issued documents such as name, sex, date of birth, social security number, and identity cards as patient identifiers. But all those have been proven unsuitable and inefficient as patient identifiers due to one or more of the following drawbacks: non-uniqueness, possessiveness, inability to establish the true identity of a patient, and limitedness of applicability to referencing of patients across healthcare systems. This project is geared towards solving the drawbacks of the earlier methods of patient identification by adopting a hybrid solution: a combination of a unique 15-digit numeric identifier and a patient’s biometric feature. A patient is expected to enroll their palm vein, with other basic information such as bio data and contact at an accredited healthcare facility, on their first visit and be assigned a unique 15-digit numeric identifier. The data are stored and maintained in a Master Unique Patient Identifier Index (MUPII). On the patient’s subsequent visits to any accredited healthcare facility, the unique code (called the unique patient identifier) is used to make an identity claim and verified by matching the patient’s palm vein pattern against the template in the MUPII. Furthermore, the identifier is useful for filing, labeling of laboratory specimens, recording, transferring and referencing of patients. In situations where the identifier is not handy (as a result of incapacitation or unconsciousness of the patient), the patient could still be identified, using just their palm vein feature alone. This solution will eliminate patient misidentification and identity theft in healthcare or, at least, reduce them to the minimum.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ________________________________________________________________________ i

APPROVAL PAGE__________________________________________________________________ ii

CERTIFICATION ___________________________________________________________________ iii

DECLARATION ____________________________________________________________________ iv

DEDICATION ______________________________________________________________________ v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT _____________________________________________________________ vi

ABSTRACT _______________________________________________________________________ vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ____________________________________________________________ viii

LIST OF FIGURES__________________________________________________________________ xi

LIST OF TABLES__________________________________________________________________ xii

ABBREVIATIONS _________________________________________________________________ xiii

CHAPTER ONE_____________________________________________________________________ 1

INTRODUCTION ___________________________________________________________________ 1

1.1 Background of Study _________________________________________________________ 1

1.2 Statement of Problem _________________________________________________________ 2

1.3 Objectives __________________________________________________________________ 3

1.4 Methodology________________________________________________________________ 3

1.5 Scope______________________________________________________________________ 3

1.6 Significance of the Work ______________________________________________________ 4

1.7 Thesis Outline _______________________________________________________________ 4

CHAPTER TWO ____________________________________________________________________ 5

LITERATURE REVIEW ______________________________________________________________ 5

2.1 Overview of Patient Identification _______________________________________________ 5

2.1.1 Patient identification ______________________________________________________ 5

2.1.2 Challenges of reliance on non-unique patient identifiers __________________________ 5

2.1.3 Patient misidentification reports _____________________________________________ 6

2.2 Unique Patient Identifier_______________________________________________________ 7

2.2.1 Functions of the Unique Patient Identifier (UPI) ________________________________ 7

2.2.2 Components of the UPI____________________________________________________ 8

2.3 Biometrics Technology for Person Recognition_____________________________________ 9

2.3.1 Biometric features________________________________________________________ 9

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2.3.2 Comparison of various biometrics __________________________________________ 14

2.4 Biometric Recognition System _________________________________________________ 16

2.4.1 Biometric system errors __________________________________________________ 18

2.4.2 Biometric classification and indexing________________________________________ 22

2.5 Existing Patient Identification Technologies in other Nations _________________________ 22

2.5.1 Patient ID bands ________________________________________________________ 22

2.5.2 Biometric technologies in healthcare ________________________________________ 23

2.6 Review of Related Literature __________________________________________________ 23

2.6.2 Social Security Number __________________________________________________ 24

2.6.3 Universal Health Identifier ________________________________________________ 24

2.6.4 Patient identification number based on Bank card method________________________ 25

2.6.5 Model UPI based on personal immutable properties ____________________________ 25

2.6.6 The unique patient identifier based on biometrics ______________________________ 26

2.6.7 Individual health identifier (IHI)____________________________________________ 27

2.6.8 National Health Service (NHS) Number______________________________________ 28

CHAPTER THREE _________________________________________________________________ 30

METHODOLOGY __________________________________________________________________ 30

3.1 Review of Already Proposed Unique Patient Identifiers _____________________________ 30

3.2 Existing Patient Identification Systems in Nigeria __________________________________ 30

3.2.1 Information elicitation from Nigerian hospitals via questionnaire design and analysis __ 30

3.3 Proposal of Biometric-assisted Unique Patient Identifier_____________________________ 38

CHAPTER FOUR___________________________________________________________________ 40

PROPOSED MODEL DESIGN ________________________________________________________ 40

4.1 Unique Patient Identifier Design________________________________________________ 40

4.1.1 Check digit ____________________________________________________________ 41

4.1.2 UPI physical representation format__________________________________________ 41

4.2 UPI System Model __________________________________________________________ 42

4.3 The Physical/Communication Architecture _______________________________________ 43

4.4 The Process Model __________________________________________________________ 45

4.4.1 Registration service______________________________________________________ 49

4.4.2 Identification service_____________________________________________________ 50

4.4.3 Identity information structure ______________________________________________ 52