A Stick in Good Health

Greetings and welcome to Wednesday's edition of A Stick in Good Health. Today we explore a common scenario where The Smart Med Card really shines through - Enjoy!

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You Ask Me Why and I'll Say Why Not

In order to fulfill my requirements for The Smart Med Card, I need to spend a lot of time on Google, Facebook, Addictomatic (news stories) and talking to business owners, EMTs, First Responders, Firefighters - holy-wha! It's a lot of work, but, I get a lot of very diverse views and opinions from the vast number of people I need to interact with on a given day. Thus, thanks to my daily duties, I have compiled a little FAQ of my own for The Smart Med Card. Remember, you can learn a lot from other peoples intentions, mistakes and misconceptions!

The price - it seems a little out of reach for me at this time.
The truth is, no it isn't. I'm famous for being blunt and to the point, so here it is. The typical family of 4 will spend about $25 twice a week eating at fast-food restaurants. That comes out to around $2600 a year - on junk food[1]. If you cut out just one week of fast-food trips and instead provide a healthy home-made meal, you could easily pay for this card; something that may actually save your life. It's all about priorities.

I'm healthy and really not too concerned about any medical emergency treatment.
Here's a questions to you - are you allergic to Penicillin? It's fairly-common and it's not known unless you are introduced to it in the first place. Are you allergic to the tetanus shot, peanuts...etc; and if 'not', are you sure? You see, WHEN something may happen which requires medical-aid you better be ready for the barrage of treatments, pokes, prods and interactions you will be part of during said treatment. If you don't know your health well enough and those providing treatment can't get the information they really need - then your situation can accelerate from not to holy-panda in two-seconds flat! Also, what about conditions that you treat such as headaches, colds, depression...etc. These medications when mixed with provided treatment could result in an acute case of death.

I can just transfer my records to my new care provider. Why isn't that enough?
Aha - personal anecdote! I, the webmaster and Social Media Marketeer am about 3 months away from having my second daughter! The thing is, my location right now is not my 'hometown'. We are actually only 2 months into our relocation. Anyway, my wife had a doctor checkup a while back and in preparation we completed her medical records requisition form and sent it out - allowing plenty of time for her records to be transferred. Well surprise, life just doesn't play well with others. The doctors still didn't have my wife's information when we arrived and the head nurse was quite irritated as we couldn't answer the questions she needed; not even about phone-numbers and addresses of our medical campus back home. It was a bit depressing being admonished about not keeping track of our information. I really wish I had this card then, or at least had written some of that information down instead of assuming our records would just be where the needed to. So, even if you just use the The Smart Med Card for keeping track of your care-providers, a few addresses, phone-numbers, allergies and medications you could not only make it easy for any other doctor you visit to provide the best care, but paperwork becomes much easier to fill out accurately.

I hear about these bracelets and IDs that look like jewelery and are just as helpful to First Responders. Why is this wallet-card any better?
It is not my place to tell you what you need to do, but it is my place to give you the information to help you make the best choice. The jewelery you see will often alert First Responders of a condition you have and perhaps an emergency contact. That is generally an OK concept, but in terms of mitigating error in treatment, getting a hold of medical records if you are not brought to your hospital and are in critical condition or locating other emergency contacts if your initial contact is not reachable, then in reality this device does not have a viable success rate in actually saving your life. Did you know that if you are female and you have a medical ID necklace the most likely scenario will be that it won't be seen due to fear of personal invasion. These devices are also incapable of alerting what medications you are on and when you most-likely took your last dose - all very important information needed to provide adequate care.

So, there's a little but more information for you to process and perhaps shine a little more light onto why The Smart Med Card should be in your wallet.


Sources:
[1] M, Kevin, 'How Much Money Can You Save by Not Eating Out, February 28, 2010, Accessed August, 30 2011 http://outofyourrut.com/blog/2010/02/28/how-much-money-can-you-save-by-not-eating-out/

A Stick in Good Health

Good Monday everybody! So, sometimes the news is just a bit too slow and topics just aren't substantial enough or are a bit too difficult to get a good blog post right now, so I turned to my inner-child and thought - HEY - we need some good humor and life-lessons on using your Smart Med Card. So, welcome to The Smart Med Card's A Stick in Good Health. Click on the images to get a better view! Today's Topics:

The Smart Med Card vs Medical ID Jewelery:

How many health conditions do you really have once you think about it?

Be sure to visit http://www.thesmartmedcard.com to get yours now!

At the Head of the Pack

I do say that there is little doubt in my mind that you have come across similar concepts and design implementations that mirror The Smart Med Card, but, not all smart USB cards are created equal. Today, we will look at why The Smart Med Card is really the only smart choice.

No Software Intended
The Smart Med Card contains no software. Our competitors felt compelled to create an elaborate set-up that will require software to run on your computer. But, in efforts to cut costs and customers, the software used doesn't play well between differing operating systems and older operating systems. So, those of you with incompatibility are left out - how does that help you? If the Smart Med Card ever creates a software version, it will still function equally as well for the widest audience. Our promise!

Portable Means 'Portable'
These devices, first of all, are USB interfaced, meaning, if your computer has a USB port, then the USB insert is going to fit. So, if USB works the same on every system then why not have your device run on that computer too? WOHOO! The Smart Med Card is two-for-two. When using your Smart Med Card, you only need the internet. Even if you can not save to your device for some-reason you can still make changes to your data (without even having the card near you) and download your papers later. You fill in The Smart Med Card HIPAA-complient web-forms on their site and your data will be highly-secured and stored/downloadable as PDF. During card-use, as long as a computer has a PDF reader then all is well (it's rare to find a computer without a reader and all medical personnel who utilize this device will have one).

Extensibility Means Survival
Our competitors, in their infinite-unwisdom, don't seem to be watching the news - otherwise, they would know to start with the basics and build with the Electronic Health Records (EHR) evolution. This way they would know how and when to integrate portions of the EHR with their device, rather than re-engineering their device (something that rarely works).

Now, The Smart Med Card is three-for-three! The construction of the card allows you to create only the necessary Portable Personal Health Record that is essential for any Medical Personnel to make the critical decisions for stabilization and preparation for long-term treatment. Your more substantial medical history will appear on your device either once the connections to your EHR can be safely and securely implemented or you retrieve your medical documentation and on your own scan your documents into PDF. No one else give you this level of control.


The Smart Conclusion
The Smart Med Card is truly the easiest, most portable and most extensible device; one that will easily adapt to the changing structure of EHR and our changing healthcare needs. It will always remain on the cutting-edge and will take the best care of you, whenever and wherever.

visit http://www.thesmartmedcard.com to learn more!

Electronic Health Records 101

Alright - so we talk about Electronic Health Records, the direction of healthcare and the technology which encapsulates the medical field, but, it must be noted that a lot of the terms we throw at you have rather verbose descriptions which are important to understand in order to appreciate what's to come. So, class, welcome to The Smart Med Card's Thirst Thursday: Drink Up!

Electronic Health Records (EHR)

 

When you have visited a care provider, whether it be a hospital, physician, clinic...etc, a record of that visit was kept. That record contained the detailed outline of your status of health, treatments, medications and so on. That record, though, was unique to the care provider, and existed no-where outside of that institution. This data would be stored on some sort of storage unit (generally a Networked Computer Server) where it could be retrieved and edited, again, only within that institution. So, each visit, within each department, a new record would be created and entered into the system. This concept worked well for monitoring and storing data, but did not work well for creating useable, singleton reports of a patient's history. Here is what I mean:

Figure 1: Pre-EHR [1]

If you look to the left at Figure 1: Pre-EHR [1], you will see, on the far left, a line of data silos (yes, like grain silos). Each silo represents a particular aspect or 'chunk' of an institution that keeps records on you. So, you have labs, nursing, procedures..etc keeping their own record sets on you. This method of storage is great in terms of efficiency in editing and maintaining your records within a particular 'chunk', but, when a complete patient profile needs to be created to determine effect of treatment or within research and data analysis, there is no easy solution. On the right side of this image it tells us that a patient profile is created by logging into separate interfaces for each silo [1].

Figure 2: EHR [1]

With respect to the concept of EHR as we are hearing about it today, here is what they are talking about. Looking at Figure 2: EHR [1] at the left, we again have the silo concept (far left) where each 'chunk' of an institution is keeping records on you (this time using a system-wide patient ID), but this time EHR software, along with an institution-wide unified vocabulary, allow for the both the gathering and formatting of a patients complete history in one location (no separate interface for each silo). A unified vocabulary means that each time a record is created in some location of an institution, they will use terminology/codes to create your record so anyone else in a separate department can access that information using the same terminology/codes. This way, a single large-scale software program can create different views of a patients complete profile as well as allow for unified data research and statistical analysis [1].

So, to conclude, what we mean by EHR, are not the separate records on a patient stored on computers, but rather, we are talking about the large-scale infrastructure required to collect and maintain all of a patients records in such a way that data can be searched, entered, maintained and studied in a single location within a single application.

Sources Cited:
[1]MITRE Center for Enterprise Modernization. 2006. Electronic Health Records Overview. McLean, Virginia. (PDF version of document downloaded August 25, 2011).

College Shopping List Addendum: The Smart Med Card

To those of you with College-bound children I say congratulations! The fact that they are going, taking the initiative to better their future, should make you so proud! This is the time where they put the values and work-ethic you worked so hard to instill to the test. But, I do make one request, one that never seems to be handled in the detail it deserves:

Medical Emergency Contingency Plans
Scenario: Your child, on their way to Campus from their dorm, gets bumped at a cross-walk by a car taking a corner (I've seen this many times at my Alma Mater) and is rendered unconscious and in critical condition from a head-wound (sorry to be taking this to a level you don't want, but it's necessary). You, as a parent, perhaps States apart are listed as the primary contact and only you can point medical personnel treating your child to the primary care physician and medical records back home.

The condensed process of events:

• Campus, State, or local police, Fire/Rescue and Medical First Responders will be called to the scene. The determination of critical-condition is noted. During the time of assessment, ID and any medical information is sought out. One of two things may happen
• Your child has their campus ID and your contact information can be obtained.
• Your child has no ID on them and no one around can ID your child. Time is of the essence and your child is set to transport as John/Jane Doe.  
• NOTE: This is a tipping point as to whether Medical Care will either aid or exacerbate the situation based on lack of Medical History. Deadly drug interactions, allergic reactions...etc can be caused by supplying rudimentary care during transport.

• Your child is now in the care of the local hospital, is finally IDd and life-support continues. BUT, they will need medical records from their primary care provider, which could take hours between request-to-reception, hours that may fall outside the time-window your child has to survive.

You see, most actions that lead to a positive result in your child's chance of survival comes from acquired medical history. In fact, if your child carried their medical and health history on them, the amount of 'work' and 'guess-work' that has to be done at the scene by responders can be mitigated. They are left with educated decisions and an established plan-of-action!

As a parent, it is your job to instill work-ethic, the ability to make good decisions and teach them the tools and trade of safety and well-being. If you consider the fact that The Smart Med Card can contain every bit of information that your hospital has - what better going-away gift, gift of care and gift of love, could you give then a tool that will last a life-time and could very well be the one factor that leads to their survival during an Emergency. No matter where your child is in this world, they will continually be able to add to and update their Smart Med Card. No matter where in the world your child is, this card will be useable during an Emergency.

So, parents, of all the College-survival tools you may be considering getting for your child, how about considering one that could save their life. Remember, emergencies are not an IF, they are a WHEN, so prepare your children now!

The Smart Med Card: Keeping You Safe in More Ways Than You Realize

That's right everybody - we're Two For Two on the re-posts har har har. My eyes and ears across the county, in association with The Smart Med Card(r), are nice enough to keep me informed when news breaks, and after reading, re-reading, and reading again for good measure the article sent to me yesterday afternoon, I have formulated the perfect Public Service Announcement about your Medical Records.

You unlock this door with the keys of ctrl+(home). Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both ones and zeros, of things and ideas; of 'OH FIRETRUCK - WHY ARE MY MEDICAL RECORDS ON GOOGLE? You've just crossed over into the uh-oh zone. " 

Are you prepared to pick up the pieces and suffer the repercussions of your life becoming available online to employers, insurance agencies, blackmailers and scammers via information-leaks? You see, your medical records, whether you like it or not, will be electronically available by 2014, but you have options. Either you take control or someone else will. Do you trust large, third-party vendors and businesses to keep your information safe more-so than yourself? Think carefully before you make this decision.

Ok, my nerdy-deed of the day is done. Here's the story.

'Until recently, medical files belonging to nearly 300,000 Californians sat unsecured on the Internet for the entire world to see.' [1]

Further along the line we see:

'The personal data was discovered by Aaron Titus, a researcher with Identity Finder who then alerted Hecht's firm and The Associated Press. He found it through Internet searches, a common tactic for finding private information posted on unsecured sites.

The data were "available to anyone in the world with half a brain and access to Google," Titus says.

Titus says Hecht's company failed to use two basic techniques that could have protected the data — requiring a password and instructing search engines not to index the pages. He called the breach "likely a case of felony stupidity."' [1]

You need to understand that you do have control over who gets access to your records. Those 300,000 people could have taken control of their medical information and mitigated this whole ordeal with only the cost of The Smart Med Card.

The Smart Med Card is a device that is as secure as YOU make it. It allows you to manage your Electronic Health Records on a very secure (validated, mind you) website. Best of all, the card's content is only viewable to those you give access to. Without The Smart Med Card and your consent to manage your own health, you could very well be setting yourself up for the devastation from the mistakes that WILL happen (I promise - as a Computer Engineer I know that there are going to be a lot of issues that won't be noticed unless something bad has happened). I highly suggest you read the full article posted below. 2014 is not far off, and if you don't want to get into the crossfire of the mishaps and mayhem from the Medical Record format switch, I highly suggest you re-evaluate your spending priorities. What's a few dollars now compared to potential thousands later on when you are trying to pick up the pieces of your 'open-book' life?

Source:
[1]Robertson, Jordan. "New data spill shows risk of online health records." USA Today | Tech. USA Today, 22Aug. 2011. Web. 23 Aug. 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011/08/New-data-spill-shows-risk-of-online-health-records/50086552/1>.

One way to reduce health insurance

Right from mouth of the star of one of the longest running political cartoons in the game - It's a Re-post! Hello everyone! So, today I'm doing things a little different - and by different, I mean keeping my yapper closed on this one. Sometimes, you come across that one article during the day that just needs to be shared and read as-is, so I will create a re-post here. I highly, highly suggest this gets at least scanned. We are looking at another door that needs to be opened in order for our healthcare system to function as intended. Please pass the word on about today's article and the others here. The Smart Med Card(r) will always keep you up-to-date on how we can help guarantee the future we deserve!
        

One way to reduce health insurance              

Happy Reading!                                                                                                                                                

Keeping Up is Key (I’m Looking at You!)

provided by freedigitalphotos.net

I’m thinking of creating a day of the week just for you – perhaps Thirsty Thursday!? Yes!  On Thirsty Thursday we will pour you a nice big glass of knowledge! – or how about a nice pint of informatie (sprichen Sie Deutsch)? Let me know what you think! So, as they say – drink up my friends!

Be Informed – Watch Less News!

You see, we are continually bombarded by media and their wealth of ‘limited’ information. From computers to food, to healthcare and beyond, we are told what we should think and how we should react. The issue at hand is, people are not making ‘informed decisions’ by researching the professional opinion; we’re not looking through the hard facts (books, publications…etc) and in turn are making rash and potentially harmful decisions and yes, we are making decisions that are harmful to the economy. Let’s narrow this to healthcare (of course!):

Responsibility to Your Digital You:

As hospitals one by one convert to Electronic Health Records (EHR), another big piece of your life is becoming available via the internet. Thanks to the media though, chances are you aren’t feeling any better. Day in and day out, we hear about one incident here and one incident there about peoples’ information being stolen or abused – and those two incidents play the piper’s flute-leading opponents to our digital-growth right to Capitol Hill.  What we fail to realize are the 50 more identity thefts and personal intrusions due to items carelessly being left around, forgetting our wallets, phones, leaving  doors open…etc.  The cold-hard truth is – your digital you is just as safe as the analog you, if not safer, as long as you remember to lock it away! Responsibility is a key factor.

The Truth is Out There

As long as you adhere to the rules and responsibilities of digital-living, having your medical information online and maintainable by you with tools such as The Smart Med Card is going to aid in economically stable and affordable healthcare. Medical records are now obtainable much more quickly, information between specialists can be shared on a need-based instant – results: our susceptibility to needless and redundant tests are mitigated, hospital wait times for treatment are lessened and the reduction of error is astonishing as your records can be consulted and searched minute by minute for pertinent facts.  Our dream of affordable and available healthcare, though, is only obtainable through the willingness to accept change and responsibility.

Taking the Wheel

Being in control of your health records on a daily basis will greatly reduce the overall prices of healthcare and greatly increase the quality of care. Medical care providers need to know every pertinent detail when you are receiving treatment and failure to provide these details can result in error, time-waste and in many cases fatality due to miss-diagnosis and accidental mal-treatment – all very costly to the system.

Remember, withholding information due to embarrassment or shame, forgetting or not-knowing your most of your medical history is not only costly to the system, but could be potentially fatal to you.  Doctors and care providers are not here to judge, but not being honest, open and diligent at keeping track of yourself can be costly. Now imagine a million of us doing this daily – the cost of each mistake is in some way continuing healthcare cost increases.

The Moral of the Story:

Today’s moral is this:  don’t fight healthcare progress or change, instead accept it and make it a part of you. The more action we take as a group the more changes for the better we will see. No Government, President or similar can fix our healthcare system – we must discover, accept and use the tools given to us for everything they are.

The Smart Med Card: Our Nation's Hope

On my morning digital stroll through the internet highways and byways, I came across a thought-provoking article from TheHill.com titled:

Adopting Electronic Health Records Will Cut Costs

Naturally, since this is a proponent to the digital-age blog, I pulled over the metaphorical car.

‘In February 2009, Congress included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act $36 billion in funding that will provide incentive payments to healthcare providers and organizations to encourage them to adopt health information technology. This technology aims to transform healthcare by improving quality and reducing costs, most significantly through the adoption of electronic health records.’ [1]

This makes sense so far. We know the benefits and the efficiency of automating many of our tasks. That’s why we continually invest so much into switching from analog to digital task-management. Well, a little further down the page, I came across the following:

‘A recent study conducted by Harvard Medical School and published by the American Journal of Medicine stated, “As currently implemented, hospital computing might modestly improve process measures of quality but does not reduce administrative or overall costs.”’ [1]

So, to most of us reading this, here is that moment where we go D’OH! Again we are throwing money away that our country doesn’t have on a go-nowhere investment. Well, actually, remember when we learned ‘Government for the people BY the people – here is that moment where it comes back to you.

The amount of money our Government is investing is in fact necessary and just. In reality they brought the coal and the lighter fluid to the cookout, but the kicker is, we can’t grill until someone lights the fire – and we’re the ones with the matches. In order for this whole process to lock into place, we as consumers of the healthcare industry have to willingly take some of the burden of healthcare management off of their shoulders and onto ours. We live with our family and ourselves day to day – we know the back of our hand like the back of our other hand…or something to that effect – but doctors and nurses – unless we hand them a medical-journal of our lives, the true power of Electronic Health Records as well as efficient and high-quality healthcare just isn’t a reality.

‘Our current system has been built around providers, insurers, the government and employers — not around consumers. But the majority of health decisions are made at home, and the daily choices individuals make can affect what everyone in the system pays for healthcare. By empowering consumers with the right information, they can make more informed decisions and work with healthcare providers to more effectively manage their health.’ [1]

In short, The Smart Med Card is the exact tool that they are talking about that will be the catalyst to cut costs and level the field of healthcare’s accessibility to more and more people. We as consumers are going to need to accept the tools given to us, i.e. The Smart Med Card, and use them wisely and diligently. 

These USB Smart Emergency Medical IDs are our ticket to that affordable and available healthcare system that we have been after for so long.

So, fellow readers, I urge you to strongly consider this post as your awakening to how we can all look forward to a fair and respectable healthcare system.

Sources Cited:

[1] Neupert, Peter, and Alfred Spector. "Adopting Electronic Health Records Will Cut Costs." TheHill.com. 23 Feb. 2010. Web. 17 Aug. 2011. <http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/83267-adopting-electronic-health-records-will-cut-costs>.

First Ever The Smart Med Card QandA!

To our loyal friends, fans, and family - we here at The Smart Med Card are in the races to become the authoritative source for all things medical ID, health records, and digital upgrades to hospitals. But, this is one undertaking we cannot do without you. There are so many topics, questions, concerns, likes and dislikes about the technological changes to our medical records and how we are treated as patients during checkups and procedures; there are also so many little areas, good and bad, silly and strange when it comes to medical ID devices and tags. So, what we ask of you is to put your thinking caps on and come up with an questions on:

Medical ID USB Devices (good, bad, uses, future outlook)
Medical ID Charms/Bracelets/Pendants (good, bad, uses, future outlook)
Medical Record switch from Paper to Digital
Laptops with nurses/doctors
Lengthened Doctor Visits (are they worth it?)
...etc


So, as you can see there are many topics to choose questions from, and I'm sure many more can be thought up by you. By supplying one or more questions you will receive a personalized answer to each question by our Technological and Research Guru, as well as your bio featured at the end of your QandA session.


What we need from you by Sunday September 4th 11:59pm est:

• A question or 2
• First Name, Last Name, State (last name will be shortened to first letter if you request it)
• Photo of you
• 20 Word bio
• Your website (Facebook, personal...etc)

We need your help Facebook Family! Send the above requests to Jim@thesmartmedcard.com and we will let you know when your question has been answered! Thanks everyone - we can't wait to get your questions!

Emergency Medical ID Bracelets: Life vs. Looks - Should This be an Issue?

Unfortunately, today’s generations seem to be heading down a dangerous path when it comes to health and well-being. They are becoming overly concerned with looks and ‘dignity’, especially in situations that pose threat to their very lives. The only solution that meets their needs, unfortunately, are limiters in life-saving abilities and do next to nothing for anyone providing life-saving aid. This mentality needs to change!

Here is one great example that showcases my point: (Quoted from http://mldollaz.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/medical-id-bracelets-what/):

So, I started looking for one of these medical ID bracelets. If you know me, you know I hate silver and all types. I’m a 24K gold girl. This is the best I could find…Are you kidding me?? Ewww. I’d rather get a tattoo on my wrist than wear that! I’m off in search of more options. So, next time you see me, if I’m wearing a hideous bracelet…

So, it seems that the author above, and a plethora of others, would rather spend $60+ on a bracelet that looks pretty and has engraved at most her name, phone, and address, a medical fact. Knowing that someone is diabetic or epileptic is only so helpful - why choose any aid for a condition over the fastest, most correct aid - only administered by having a complete medical history?

To our readers, let me pose this to you. If you were away from home and your only ID is your bracelet-your only chance of sure-survival being someone on the street and the Emergency Medical Providers they called in, what would you rather be wearing – something that looks expensive and helps fill your daily ‘my received compliments jar’, or something that will have any and all of your medical facts, decisions, and family information they would need to ensure you get the best possible treatment.

Smart Med Bracelet

Don't go without our Emergency Medical ID USB Bracelet - think about what your life means to you and your loved ones-and protect it the best way you can! Visit http://www.thesmartmedcard.com and pick up the only bracelet you will ever wear that could become the only reason your life was saved!

Weary About Your Electronic Health Records? Don’t Be!

photo by freedigitalphotos.net

Due to the high publicity that ‘Crackers’ (people who gain entrance to electronic systems for malicious intent – not to be confused with Hackers – ones who self-learn how systems work for hobby or educational purposes) get in today’s media, it is easy to understand why you may be afraid of having your Paper Health Records (PHR) turned into Electronic Health Records (EHR) and stored in a database. But let me pose this to you, do you believe that your PHR are actually safer?

From Computer Engineer James Hollenbeck: 

The problems  people  are not considering in the safety of PHR is the fact that they are guarded by humans – prone to leaving things lying around, misplacing items,  damaging, stealing…etc. Human laziness and lack of attention is the leading cause of Hospital Records being breached, not because of illegal entrance into their computer system. 

Secondly, there exists no audit trail for your PHR. The chain-of-custody of your records could change many times within hours during a day and no track record of who had what when exists other than by word-of-mouth by those who “may” have had your records. Here-in lays the brilliance of EHR that should put some ease to your worried minds.

• Having a centralized database of your EHR means any incident away from home requiring Emergency Medical Care is much less serious in terms of being provided inadequate/harmful treatments due to no one knowing your medical past. What used to take hours (hospital transfer of Medical Records) now takes minutes.
•  Your EHR are safe from disaster; flooding, fire, tornado…and the list continues. 
• Your records are now highly encrypted, so unless someone discovers the encryption/decryption key, which is next to impossible, then there is no way for anyone to read your records in the event your records are “stolen”. 
• The idea of the audit trail; everyone who gains access to the system will leave their own “trail of bread-crumbs”.  So, the source of every event can be determined and dealt with.

photo by freedigitalphotos.net

 In all honesty, if you really care about the safety and security of your Health Records, then you would be in full support of EHR and the benefits they will offer you. Don’t be fooled by technological “incidents” in the media – they never report (and are not professionals in the Computer Engineering/Science/Networking and Data Storage technologies) exactly what happened, and by who.

-- James Hollenbeck
   BS Computer Engineering
   Michigan Technological University 2009

The World’s Most Versatile Medical ID USB Devices – Your Electronic Health Records in PDF.

In the future, your medical records will be stored electronically in a centralized, world-wide database accessible to any doctor who may need to provide routine/emergency medical treatment.  Unfortunately, due to the elongated switching process from paper to Electronic Health Records (EHR), any routine/emergency treatment you may require while away from home or while in a state of limited-response may be prone to error and delay due to the high turn-around time from request- to-reception of your medical records.

 

The Smart Med Card ® has taken a step to mend this gap between the paper-to-EHR switch by developing  the two most content-rich  Smart Emergency Medical ID USB devices available; the Smart Medical ID Card and the Smart Medical ID Bracelet. Now, if you’ve come across similar products, then hold on. These Smart Medical ID devices are the only ones in existence meant to carry your complete EHR strictly in PDF format. These devices are useable on any Operating System and are manageable with any computer having a network connection. Never before has a device been as capable of being utilized by any healthcare provider with a PDF reader – which constitutes almost any hospital in the world as well as almost any Emergency Medical Technician on the scene.

 

Here is just a sample of what your Smart Medical ID devices will store:

• Your Full Name and Address; Emergency contacts
• Primary/Secondary Physicians and their address and phone
• Conditions, medications (dose and frequency), allergies, blood type
• Last revision date of your information
• Your complete wellness profile
• Your Electronic Health Records (EHR): medical profile, x-rays/imaging, Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, Durable Power of Attorney (POA) for healthcare...and the list goes on.

Nowhere will you find a device that will allow you to carry your life’s medical history in your back pocket or on your wrist; never again forced to recall your information at a moments notice. No matter where you are, how far from home or family, you will have every last detail any routine/emergency medical provider could need to make all the right decisions the first time.

 

Visit The Smart Med Card (http://www.thesmartmedcard.com) to get your Smart Medical ID USB Device now. Being prepared has never been so easy!