Over the next two years, VeriChip will be implanting 200 Alzheimer's patients in Palm Beach County, Florida with its VeriMed RFID chips. According to the South Florida Business Journal, the project started this week at the West Palm Beach nonprofit agency Alzheimer's Community Care.

"Our caregivers are very interested in the VeriMed Patient Identification Project," says Alzheimer's Community Care president Mary Barnes. "They value its safety features for their loved ones who are suffering with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's patients often find themselves in situations where this technology could make the difference between life and death. That alone makes it our responsibility to be involved with this project."

But as the Chicago Tribune's Julie Deardorff notes, "not everyone sees the chips as a safety net. Privacy advocates say Alzheimer's patients can't give informed consent and that implanting a chip is a violent and invasive act. Bracelets that can't be taken off, they say, are a better solution."

More here from the Palm Beach Post ... and more here from Consumerist.