Calling in sick and “having a doctor’s note” won’t get you a free day off work anymore, at least not in Malaysia. A USB device, called SickVerify, will eventually substitute the role of doctors as providers of medical certificates. By August 2012, doctors across Malaysia will lose the legal authority to issue medical certificates. From then on, all workers will have to submit to a test using SickVerify to substantiate their claims for sick leave.

Using a complex series of algorithms, SickVerify measures the concentration of antibodies and cortisol (shows up specifically from stomach cramps) in the saliva sample to determine whether the subject was ill during the time period claimed for sick leave. The device is reportedly 98.9% accurate.

The test itself is blindingly simple and quick. The subject wets a fingernail-sized piece of cotton with his/her saliva. The cotton is inserted into the compartment of SickVerify, which is then plugged into any laptop or desktop via a USB socket. A program provided with SickVerify can then be run to begin the test (which takes approximately 3 minutes) and display the results.

This might not be a bad idea in the United States, as employers loss $1.8 billion from March Madness alone. But would verifying everyone’s sick leave excuses really fly in this country?

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