VeriChip's infant protection systems are designed to prevent infant abductions and inadvertent child mishandlings. The main component of the systems is a wearable RFID tag that is assigned to child and mother following birth. Monitors positioned throughout the hospital detect the integrity of the tags and location of the child. If a newborn is removed from the ward, if the tag is lifted from the baby's skin or if the ankle strap is compromised, the system immediately triggers an alarm, alerting hospital security to the situation.

The VeriChip infant protection systems also guard against mismatching events by affixing matching RFID tags to mother and child. If the mother is given the wrong child, the RFID tag detects the mismatch and activates an audible alarm.

VeriChip believes that it has the largest installation base of infant protection systems of any company in the industry. In the first quarter of 2007, the number of infant protection systems sold by VeriChip increased 14 percent, while the number of infant protection systems sold to new customers increased 28 percent compared to the first quarter of 2006.

"This is an important milestone for our healthcare security business," said Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VeriChip. "The market for infant protection continues to grow at a rapid pace as hospitals and parents push for improvements in hospital security. As a result, systems like Hugs and HALO, which are proven effective at safeguarding against infant abductions, are increasingly becoming the gold standard at most birthing hospitals and a key factor for parents in determining where they choose to have their child" - Applied Digital.