TY - JOUR T1 - Biometric Fingerprint System to Enable Rapid and Accurate Identification of Beneficiaries JF - Global Health: Science and Practice JO - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT SP - 135 LP - 137 DO - 10.9745/GHSP-D-15-00010 VL - 3 IS - 1 AU - Daniel Matthew L Storisteanu AU - Toby L Norman AU - Alexandra Grigore AU - Tristram L Norman Y1 - 2015/03/01 UR - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/3/1/135.abstract N2 - Inability to uniquely identify clients impedes access to services and contributes to inefficiencies. Using a pocket-sized fingerprint scanner that wirelessly syncs with a health worker's smartphone, the SimPrints biometric system can link individuals' fingerprints to their health records. A pilot in Bangladesh will assess its potential. With over 70% of births unregistered in least developed countries and 40% in developing countries, governments, multilateral health organizations, and NGOs increasingly recognize the “identification gap” as a major contributing factor to underdevelopment.1 Lack of official identity documentation, such as birth certificates, social security numbers, and medical records, obstructs people's access to basic rights and services.1–4 While health worker-driven mobile health (mHealth) programs are revolutionizing health care,5 challenges still exist in patient identification arising from lack of official identification, common community names, unknown dates of birth, and human error.mHealth programs face challenges in patient identification due to lack of identity documentation.Health workers may be responsible for tracking and monitoring the health of more than 1,000 individuals.6 The identification gap wastes resources (e.g., redundant vaccinations), limits information, excludes individuals from health services, and costs lives. Whereas in many places informal systems of identification have … ER -