Patients
are about to be targeted like never before by advertising companies as face
recognition software merges with information screens to profile your interests
as you wait for your doctor.
Lord Sugar is on the verge of selecting one
more hard-nosed apprentice to his entrepreneurial stable as his Apprentice
programme reaches its latest conclusion this Wednesday. Quite what work the
eventual winner will undertake is unclear but a previous winner was selected
to run the sales of a project that profiles patients in the NHS as they sit and
wait for their GP.
Amscreen
Plc is part of Lord Sugar’s Amshold Group of companies, which is based
in the tax haven of Jersey and is overseen by his son Simon Sugar, who is the
CEO. The company, which launched in 2008 when Lord Sugar bought Comtech M2M, provides T.V screens into places where there is a captive
audience and places targeted marketing alongside the other content the
organisation may use. These screens are placed
in GP surgeries, hospitals and dentists throughout the UK and in Europe
and also in petrol stations, convenience stores.