At least one Irish health insurance company is considering asking customers to sign up to "health management regimes". These would be linked to their premiums and could see them using new diagnostic technologies to monitor their health, according to the director of a Government-funded diagnostic research unit.
Prof Brian MacCraith, director of the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, based at Dublin City University, yesterday said the move could form part of an overall package of required measures, including customers' commitment to alter their diet and lifestyle.
He has recently held discussions with "some of the more innovative" insurance companies, including at least one Irish health insurer, he said.
The aim of this was to utilise some of the diagnostic devices that it is developing to encourage people to be more proactive in managing their own health.
"An individual could sign up to a health management regime and would be rewarded by a reduction in their premiums," he said. "There are some US health insurance companies who are already using this type of approach."
However, he declined to name the Irish company and stressed that talks were at an early stage.
It was also unclear yesterday whether customers might face increased premiums for failing to sign up to any such initiative, or what sanctions they would face for breaking any commitments they made.
But Sheila O'Connor, co-ordinator of Patient Focus, yesterday said any such initiative was equivalent to the introduction of a "health police". Speaking in a personal capacity, she said she hoped such an approach would be unconstitutional, as she believe it would be a "gross violation of human rights".
"People have a right to a particular lifestyle, provided it doesn't impinge on the rights of other people," she said. "I don't think we have the right to dictate a person's lifestyle."
Prof MacCraith's institute, which has received approximately €16.5 million in funding to date from Science Foundation Ireland, is working on a range of innovative new diagnostic tools for human and animal health.
These include the development of a biochip based on a "pinprick" of blood that could be used in a GP's surgery to allow for the early detection of cardiovascular disease, possibly by sending information wirelessly to an expert centre for analysis.
The institute says it intends to bring this to prototype stage within 12 months.