DELRAY BEACH, Fla., March 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VeriChip Corporation today announced it entered into a Community Partnership Agreement with U.S. Living Will Registry(R) that enables healthcare professionals to view the Advance Directives of patients enrolled in the VeriMed Patient Identification System via a secure link within the VeriMed Patient Registry. This will be the first completely digital link to a national Advance Directive document archive. Utilizing the U.S. Living Will Registry's proprietary software platform and the VeriMed Patient Registry, VeriMed subscribers will be able to register their advance directives and organ donation information.
Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VeriChip Corporation, commented, "We are pleased to provide direct access to electronic advance directive documents stored at the U.S. Living Will Registry via the VeriMed Patient Identification System. This permits hospitals and health systems with our VeriMed RFID Reader to quickly and easily view these vital documents."
"Our system is designed to be scalable for individuals from all states, health systems, insurers and national organizations. We provide a safe and secure place to store the documents, and make them available 24 hours a day wherever they are needed," said Dr. Joseph T. Barmakian, who founded the U.S. Living Will Registry in 1996. "VeriMed is taking a leadership position in ensuring ready access to important advance directives, and we are excited to be their partner in providing this valuable service," continued Barmakian.
Advance directives, commonly known as living wills and health care proxies, are legal documents that allow a person to make their health care wishes known if they are incapacitated and unable to make decisions for themselves. In a health care proxy (health care power of attorney), a person names someone to make decisions for them. Interest in advance directives increased dramatically with nationwide attention to the case of Floridian Terri Schiavo. Ms. Schiavo was in a chronic vegetative state, and did not have an advance directive. The national attention to Ms. Schiavo's case prompted many to prepare their own advance directive in order to spare their families a similar fate.
About U.S. Living Will Registry
About VeriChip Corporation
VeriChip Corporation, headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, develops, markets and sells radio frequency identification, or RFID, systems used to identify, locate and protect people and assets. VeriChip's goal is to become the leading provider of RFID systems for people in the healthcare industry. VeriChip sells passive RFID systems for identification purposes and active RFID systems for local-area location and identification purposes. VeriChip recently began to market its VeriMed(TM) Patient Identification System for rapidly and accurately identifying people who arrive in an emergency room and are unable to communicate. This system uses the first human-implantable passive RFID microchip, the implantable VeriChip(TM), cleared for medical use in October 2004 by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Statements about the Company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and the Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances.
VeriChip Corporation
