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Authentication utilizes face, hands, fingers, signature, eye, voice--and how you smell too. But biometrics is only beginning in healthcare.

What does it mean to be an authentic person? he dictionary says it is being "of undisputed origin," something we take for granted.

After all, our family and friends acknowledge who we are. The courthouse has a birth certificate, the state has a driver's license, the federal government has a social security number, and we have a pocketful of plastic that says many companies embrace us--as long as we pay on the minimum balance.

But not so with a Kosovo refugee. Thousands have had their identity taken from them before they were forced out of their country. How do they prove who they are when they want to return home to reclaim their homes and lives?

Having one's identity verifiable is the business of biometric authentication, and healthcare is more and more involved in using this technology. It is a market that will total $100 million this year; compare that tiny fraction to the $100 billion spent on private security in the U.S.

The research group of Mentis Corp., a unit of GartnerGroup, says the biometrics market will grow 27 to 35 percent through year 2000.

Just what is this growing field? The International Biometric Industry Association says that "such authentication is accomplished by using computer technology in a noninvasive way to match patterns of live individuals in real time against enrolled records."

And devices and products are coming on line now that recognize faces, hands, fingers, keystrokes, signatures, irises, voices, and fingerprints.

Their use in healthcare protect computer network security, control access to healthcare facilities or departments, protect financial transactions against fraud, verify time and attendance--as well as safeguard international borders and return refugees to their rightful homes. One of the show's exhibitors is discussing with the government how to use the technology in refugee resettlement.

Just take a short walk with me down the aisles of the CardTech/SecurTech show recently in Chicago. The people at Who? Vision in Lake Forest, CA, invited me to see their fingerprint identification technology that they say portends a "world-free of PINs, passwords, and keys." Rob Dobson, vice president of marketing, gave me a smart card containing a chip that could read and then recall my fingerprint.

They call it their TactileSense technology and refer to it, in a nice twist on the word, e-thentication. It transforms the ridges and loops of a fingerprint into an optical image pattern.

"The burgeoning use of the Internet, e-commerce, and computer networks is placing increasing importance upon network security," Dobson says. "The ability to authenticate identity is critical to safeguard against unauthorized transactions and data access. In particular, many hospitals and healthcare providers are looking for security solutions for accessing patient data."

Next I stopped at NEC Technologies Inc., from Arlington, VA, where Lee Moser had me use the TouchPass finger imaging scanner in validating a network log-on. The system essentially gives access to a computer or system by scanning and recognizing an authorized user's finger image. Moser is business development manager for NEC Advanced Identification Solutions Group.

Their system, she says, "eliminates the need for several passwords with single sign-on capability for registered users in gaining access to the network." No more password administration either.

If a fingerprint isn't enough, you can go to full face recognition. Visionics Corporation in Jersey City, NJ, use their product Faceit with the Polaroid Corp. to test for duplicate enrollment in Connecticut's social services benefits system.

"Computerized face recognition is fast proving to be one of the most powerful tools in the fight against identity fraud," says Dr. Joseph J. Atick, Visionics CEO. He says that the product can search more than ten million images per minute on a single PC. "With that type of power, aliases and duplicate registrations are bound to become a thing of the past."

I admired the resourcefulness of the company when I read in their literature one advantage to face recognition. "Humans are adept at recognizing faces and hence," the literature reads, "in case of system downtime, a human can be used as a backup."

A couple aisles over I showed up at LCI Technology Group NV, based in the Netherlands, and had a conversation with chair and CEO Sam Asseer. He pulls out what appears to be a somewhat bulky pen--which it is, but it is more.

Ah, enter signature authentication in the form of the SMARTpen biometric signature authentication system. Yes, the doctor can use it to sign off on procedures and records. But the pen is also a wireless embedded computer system while looking and working like a common ballpoint pen.

Sam Asseer says "the SMART pen utilizes built-in sensors that enable the authentication of users through the biometric characteristics of their signatures on regular paper." If the doctor loses it, and the finder tries to fraudulantly copy the doctor's signature, it won't work. The computer software that receives the encrypted data compares the signature to a template for verification in only three seconds.

"The dynamics of signatures as measured by the product are personal and not directly visible from the written image, making it virtually impossible for forged signatures to get through," Asseer says. Those dynamics are the force on the paper, acceleration, tilt, pen held up or down, and time taken in doing the signature.

Asseer likes to call it a "trust transporter." He enjoyed my reference to Ronald Reagan's admonition to trust in a national defense context--"Trust but verify." Verification of a truthworthy relationship is what the product is about, Asseer agreed.

There is a huge part of the marketplace built around smart cards by Motorola, Microsoft, and Visa, to name a few. Voice recognition systems are gaining ground in the work of IBM's new ViaVoice telephony and Dragon Systems' new version of NaturallySpeaking Mobile Medical Suite. But in a show of some 1000 companies, only a few of them are seriously using the technology in healthcare settings. However, it is a field that is growing daily, and next year's show will be quite different in product development.

I heard there is even an authentication system built around one's scent--that's right, how you smell. I couldn't track it down. Guess we weren't a good match.

Ronald E. Keener is editor of HEALTH MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY