The New York City diabetes database, created to track the growth of (type 2) diabetes amongst the city's residents, has raised the ire of some who claim it violates their right to privacy. A reporter for the Staten Island Advance quotes resident Melissa: "Every time I go to have my blood sugar checked, my test results are being wired to the (city) Health Department. The idea of your privacy being taken away from you goes across all bounds." Melissa also says she doesn't think the city has justification to track patient records for something like diabetes, which is not contagious like, for example, tuberculosis.

My first instinct on reading this: cry me a river, Melissa. Residents should be aware their blood sugar levels are being sent to the health department, and they should be aware of why it is being done. But, really, isn't it a tad paranoid to worry too much about privacy? I mean, why should anyone care about your blood sugar levels out of all the thousands of others out there? If this is a way to gauge how type 2 diabetes is spreading in the NYC area, and if this data can help (as the city claims) determine how best to spend public money on containing the problem, I say go for it.

On the other hand, protecting peoples' privacy should be a factor for consideration, says Dr. Peter Sheehan, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and board member of the American Diabetes Association. "We applaud this kind of work," says Dr. Sheehan, but "we're somewhat concerned about the privacy of the individual." This concern is shared by the people entrusted with maintaining the database, says Dr. Diana K. Berger of the Health Department: "We are so careful to protect people's privacy," says Dr. Berger. She adds that only a handful of people have access to the room in which the data is stored, and data is encrypted as it makes its way from laboratories to the city.

All-in-all, it's a slightly unsettling case of weighing priorities: public good versus the right to privacy.

Very much like a prisoner being tracked in a work-release program (except it's implanted on the inside of your upper arm) -- the VeriMed microchip stores your vital health information for times when you are unable to disclose it yourself. It's about the size of a grain of rice and VeriChip says the procedure is painless.

At the Diabetic Expo, held in Atlanta, Georgia -- VeriChip Corporation received the endorsement of the American Diabetes Association to test implant the microchip in 18 diabetics who signed up for the voluntary procedure. The implantable RFID microchip sends patient information to a handheld RFID scanner and a secure patient database. This system is intended to provide immediate access to important health information for patients who arrive at an emergency room unable to communicate.

The chip stores your personal health information and it can be transmitted (in theory) to a medical professional in an emergency room. However, given the fact that anyone possessing the handheld RFID scanner can access your personal health information on the secure database- I'm not so sure I'd want to leave that out there for the world of battery-operated busy bodies. I remember how violated I felt when my personal information was stolen from Ameriprise. How would you feel if your most personal information was tapped because someone left the emergency room RFID scanner unmanned? Your name would be worth a lot more than you realize!