BERGEN COUNTY CHIEF OF POLICE GETS VERICHIP
April 23 2005
VeriChip Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Applied Digital,
announced today that the Bergen County, New Jersey Chief of Police has been implanted with the VeriChip. Chief of Police Jack
Schmidig, a member of the police force for over 30 years, received a VeriChip as part of the Company's strategy of enlisting
key regional leaders to accelerate adoption of the VeriChip. With hospital emergency room infrastructure forming, patients
will have the ability to provide secure ID and medical record access in an emergency or clinical situation.
"High-profile regional leaders are accepting the VeriChip, representing
an excellent example of our approach to gaining adoption of the technology," said Kevin H. McLaughlin, VeriChip Corporation's
CEO. "The northern New Jersey area represents one of our early regional targets, and in a short time period we have secured
a leading hospital in the region which has agreed to adopt the VeriChip System to scan patients; initiated efforts to educate
the physician community in conjunction with one of our distribution partners Henry Schein Corporation, and implanted several
high-profile members of the community with the VeriChip. We intend to employ this approach on a regional basis to accelerate
acceptance of this Class II medical device."
VeriChip Corporation has adopted three key elements to its marketing
strategy to develop regional acceptance for VeriChip. They include developing the infrastructure at regional hospitals to
support the VeriChip System (scanner and database) in the Emergency Rooms; educating the medical community in the region in
conjunction with Henry Schein and other distribution partners; and seeking high-profile members of the community to receive
the VeriChip to raise awareness of the device.
Initially, the Company has identified several groups of patients
that are likely to benefit from the VeriChip due to medical conditions. These include diabetics, chronic and cardiac care
patients, memory impaired patients and patients with implanted medical devices. These patients would benefit from having a
VeriChip as a result of medical conditions that increase the likelihood of an emergency room visit, which could require time-sensitive
procedures where access to medical records would be critical.
Using the VeriChip System, the emergency room attendant could scan
the VeriChip in the patient's arm, accessing a unique 16-digit ID number. This number would be linked to a medical records
database, which would provide detailed information on implanted medical devices and patient medical records, which could provide
valuable information allowing the hospital to quickly implement the appropriate procedures on patients who otherwise might
not be able to communicate medical histories due to impaired conditions.