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MedicAlert Uses RFID to Create Alternative Personal Health Records
It was back in 1956 when MedicAlert, a not-for-profit foundation, started helping consumers with health problems by providing bracelets and other devices that could warn providers of these health issues. MedicAlert became famous for those bracelets. Now MedicAlert is attempting to put personal health records (PHRs) directly in the hands of consumers.
Last spring, MedicAlert announced plans to launch a pilot project to test the use of Radio Frequency Identification Detection (RFID) to improve access to student health information. MedicAlert worked with Advanced Micro Devices, Siemens IT Solutions and Services, and California State University Stanislaus, to demonstrate the effective application and use of RFID technology. The 90-day pilot started March 1, 2007 and about 200 students participated in the project.
Students participating in the pilot were provided with a one-year free subscription to MedicAlert Membership and a special plastic RFID-enabled ID Card. The RFID circuit on the card only contained the student's unique member identification number linked to their personal health record securely stored at the MedicAlert repository. Each time a student entered the student health center, a secure kiosk printed out a Personal Health Summary Record of the student's medical information that was been stored in the MedicAlert repository. The summary could then be added to the "face sheet," or to the student's medical record to be used as additional or supplemental information for the clinical visit.
This demonstration project builds on an earlier initiative by MedicAlert to help consumers convert and carry their health records in an electronic form. In August of 2005, MedicAlert launched the MedicAlert E-HealthKEY Personal Health Record, a USB-enabled device that stores medical records and history, allowing members to carry their complete PHR on a keychain and upload or download their information from MedicAlert's repository.
MedicAlert partnered with Newtown, Pa.-based CapMed, which had developed the Personal HealthKey, a USB-based standalone personal health record. The USB keys are being sold online by mega retailer Amazon.com. Unlike PHRs controlled by doctor's offices and hospitals, the E-HealthKEY PHRs are completely controlled by patients. Patients can choose to provide their doctors with the information, or not, as they see fit.
MedicAlert's RFID pilot project with students at California State University Stanislaus is expected to demonstrate the functionality of RFID technology. Experts have pointed out that RFID chips with a member's identification number could easily be implanted directly into members' skin. Members would opt-into this service and would generally be asked for permission to scan for their number by healthcare providers, thus maintaining a patient's control of the confidentiality and access to his or her PHR.
What is noteworthy in MedicAlert's attempt at creating a PHR is that they are choosing to target the consumer instead of healthcare professionals. In this scenario, consumers concerned about their health records absorb the cost of having a PHR. Obviously, many large companies such as AMD and Siemens see merit in this approach and want to get more involved in healthcare technology.
The message for laboratories is, as always, the digital era draws ever closer. It will be interesting to see how quickly consumers with serious health conditions decide to have an RFID implanted under their skin, linked to the MedicAlert personal health record repository. The day draws closer when phlebotomists, before collecting a specimen, may be scanning the patient's implanted RFID chip to confirm the patient's identity.
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