Family gets chips implanted in arms

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- With a painless syringe-prick in their upper arms, a Florida family on Friday became the first recipients of tiny, computer chip implants that store medical information.

Jeff and Leslie Jacobs, along with their 14-year-old son, Derek, had the chips, about the size of a grain of rice, implanted in about a minute under local anesthesia.

The family wanted the implants in case of future medical emergencies.

The implant, called the VeriChip, were designed by Palm Beach-based Applied Digital Solutions Inc. The chips are similar to chips implanted in pets to identify them if they are lost.

Jeff Jacobs is a 48-year-old dentist who has suffered through cancer, a car crash, a degenerative spinal condition, chronic eye disease and abdominal operations. He is on 10 medications and doctors have told him they are not sure how long he will live.

"We're doing this as a security for us, because we've worked so hard to save my husband's life," said Leslie Jacobs, 46.

The Jacobs family's chips contain only telephone numbers and information about previous medications.

The VeriChip doesn't require batteries and its data is read by a scanning device which can be Internet-connected to access a medical record database.

The chip, which could also be used as a security tool, has stirred debate over its potential use as a "Big Brother" device to track people or invade their privacy.

Jacobs and his family brushed aside those arguments, saying anyone can be tracked through the Internet and e-mail, credit cards and cellular phones.