Flash Drive Stores Health Records

Health Data Management Magazine
March 1, 2005

MedicAlert, a Turlock, Calif.-based vendor of emergency medical technology and services, has developed a USB device that stores personal medical records. The Personal HealthKey device can be plugged into a USB port on a desktop or notebook PC to give emergency providers access to a patient's critical medical information. Patients can store their entire medical record on the device, including images; or, just include critical data, such as allergies or conditions they've authorized medical personnel to view in an emergency situation. Patients can view and update data on the HealthKey via an interface between the device and a MedicAlert Web portal. They also can upload such information to the vendor's database. The device runs on the U3 platform, which enables USB devices to be used for other applications besides traditional data storage.