Factors that Influence Reliability of Biometric Identification for On-Scene Smart Healthcare Applications

In a medical emergency situation, such as a traffic accident, effective and efficient identification of patients can improve the chances of survival for critically injured patients. In some cases, the patients may be unconscious when paramedics arrive at the scene. Timely and successful identification of patient in varying states of injury and/or consciousness can provide the attending paramedics with vital information about the patients' medical records, thereby allowing them to provide the patients with the most appropriate life-saving on-scene medical interventions. Major improvements in miniaturized biometric hardware, low-power telecommunication devices, efficient biometric identification platforms, and energy-efficient artificial intelligent-enhanced data processing techniques all contribute towards the next generation of smart on-scene patient identification, even for paramedics attending at emergency sites in remote locations. This paper focuses specifically on fingerprint acquisition and processing, as fingerprints are among the most popular biometrics used for identification. In addition to fingerprint identification for patients, it is also useful for quick and effective identification of medical personnel for access to resources like ambulances. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to investigate factors that can enhance the reliability of such identification systems in practical scenarios involving some form of telecommunications backbone, which are typically much more unforgiving than comparable laboratory settings.