MedicAlert to arm patients with USB drives

MedicAlert, best known for its health care information bracelets, plans to offer a USB device that stores personal medical records.

The nonprofit company unveiled the product Wednesday as part of this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. MedicAlert will begin selling the device, dubbed the Personal HealthKey, some time during the first half of 2005. The product will use a USB flash drive made by SanDisk and software from CapMed, a division of Bio-Imaging Technologies. The device will work with any USB-capable computer.

Much as the MedicAlert's trademark bracelets have become a routine part of the checklist used by health care workers to investigate a patient's medical history, MedicAlert is hoping that the USB (Universal Serial Bus) device will establish a ubiquitous presence within the industry. Like the bracelets, the Personal HealthKey catalogs an individual's health-related issues, such as chronic medical conditions or drug allergies. Unlike the bracelets, the new product will offer detailed medical information, not just alerts to one or two major conditions.

MedicAlert said the device will be of particular value to first responders such as paramedics and hospital physicians because they will be able to insert the USB drive into any computer and immediately gain access to an overview of a person's information.

Updates to the health records stored on the device can be made by a patient and other people authorized by the person to do so, such as a physicians or pharmacists.

The Turlock, Calif.-based company said the Personal HealthKey will range in price from $50 to $75, based on applications selected for use by a customer and the chosen storage capacity of a particular USB drive. MedicAlert will also provide online backup of the information stored on the devices in its databases, with support from its emergency response center.

Hipaa ???

I can see how if this only dealt with first responders,but this will also save you from filling out the tons of paper work when you change doctors.
But how do you secure the information in a standard which all medical providers can open?

Not so new

MedicTag has been offering a similar, patent pending, product since last year. It was displayed at the October 2004 EMS Expo in Atlanta.

[isapozo]

Patented? New? Multiple Languages?

I didn't see anything about it being a patented product. I have seen very similar products on the market so what makes this product different? Does this have an interface with the EMRs doctors use already. What does my computer have to have for it to work?

[isapozo]

Patented? New? Multiple Languages?

I didn't see anything about it being a patented product. I have seen very similar products on the market that are already patented like the one from Patient Practitioners so what makes this product different? Does this have an interface with the EMRs doctors use already. What does my computer have to have for it to work?