EmergiLink is a secure Internet based Emergency Medical Record that is initiated and updated by the subscriber. The online profile is HIPAA compliant and only accessible to paramedics who respond to your medical emergency.

Also with your record, you attach your photo and they upload two of your fingerprints. If you are unconscious when they respond to you, they can scan your finger and within seconds, identify you, find out where you live, your next of kin, your medical history (allergies, conditions,medical implants, etc.) your personal physician and your medical insurance info.

The program is administered by your local fire department.

Nothing is secure online. Regardless of it being set up for only paramedics, after a medical history is placed online anywhere, it`s open to people who really want to access it for unethical purposes.

Thanks for your opinion. Millions of transaction occur online using credit cards every day and most people have confidence their data is secure. How is their medical history less secure? Actually HIPAA requirements (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act--Clinton 1996) require this data is more secure than credit card transactions.

Also, millions of physcian based electronic health records are already placed online today so that Dr`s can access and teat their patients more efficiently.

If people are ok making cc transactions on a daily basis, they should be confident their medical history is safe. If people for whatever reason want this information, they can dumpster-dive behind many medical buildings and find it more readily.

And so too we have stories of 1 laptop being stolen or lost from the Pentagon, credit card transaction processing companies, the Social Security department, and so on. And that laptop contains all the keys and codes to enter into those secure databases.

I`m not saying that online transaction processing is weak, or bad. I`m saying that we need to stop believing that just because there`s 128-bit encryption, it`s "guaranteed" to be private, secure, and safe.

Consider the increase in identity theft. How did that happen if all this is so perfectly secure. Now consider what would happen if people started having their entire medical history open?

There`s an MD turned novelist, Michael Palmer, who wrote a story about a company that installed the "black box" encryption and coding devices. They were owned by an HMO, and used their access to change surgical and medical orders to ensure that long-term-care patients would die in the OR, thereby saving the HMO hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Would this actually happen? Probably not. But *could* it happen? I see no reason why it couldn`t.

Point taken. Despite what hits the news about identity theft often enough, we continue to make purchases on line and our lives now depend upon it. What would someone really do with my medical record..I`ll tell you: they may sell the info to companies (if there is still a market for them) that would target sell me products realting to my medications or medical conditions. They could also pull the contact info and steal identtity. But they can already do that with all online card transactions. Add the medical info and you`re back to pre-HIPAA days where medcial records were actually FAX`d to companies for target marketing.

As you know--enter HIPAA--and you are now obligated to tell everyone what you plan on doing with their info, who will see it, when, why and how. The how part relates to the stringent security measures you now have to provide to provide the highest reasonable assurance their date won`t be stollen; elctronically or otherwise. And it is a higher security than online credit card transactions.

My point is the technology is here and we can provide better protection. Nothing is bomb proof as you so eloquently explained but it is a pesimistic sort of view. You seem to take on that roll...nothing wrong with that...it actually helps flush things out.

In my approach I teamed up with a biometrics company that serves law enforcement and homeland security. And administering the program via the fire service adds the element of trust necesary to obtain community participation.

I am sure there will always be those who will just say no way. I won`t try to convert them. Many more will see the value and in the risk vrs. reward scheme of things, they will more likely sign up than not.

Medicalogic has nearly 6 million online medical records and there is no paramedic access to them. People are signing up just to keep track of their own records at home, print a copy and take it to their new dr.

The stolen laptop and records missing from the dumptster behind the medical office seems to be largely where this data is stollen.

Do you want to play 20 questions in the back of an ambulance when your having a heart attack or would you rather have them scan your finger and pull up everyhting they need to know to treat you faster and get you to the hospital? An average medical emergency takes 20-30 minutes on scene with a patient. Most of that time is gathering medical history and basic contact/insurance info.

I believe the time is right for this. Some will always disagree--no matter what you tell them.

 

I think that the potential benefits of this type of service outweigh the security risks, particularly if reasonable precautions are taken to secure the information.

I`m not sure that anything in my medical history would be of interest to anyone anyway. While having it printed on the front page of the local paper might be a little embarrassing, I can`t see any real harm coming from this type of disclosure.

My professional experience tells me that, if someone is serious about obtaining your medical history and is willing to break the law to get it, there are numerous methods of doing this already. This doesn`t mean that reasonable security precautions shouldn`t be taken, but if you think your information is perfectly safe now, you are kidding yourself.

 

What worries me isn`t the technology or that someone can misuse it. Instead, I`m bothered by two things. The first is this pervasive belief that "because something exists, therefore we may as well use it." It`s at the core of the idea that "kids will have sex anyway, so we may as well permit it."

Secondly is the utter failure of the government to run ANYthing in an efficient way whatsoever. Yes, the technology IS here, and we could do marvelous things with it. Look at what that fella`s doing with his company to prevent identity theft (can`t remember, but he gives out his SS number).

I understand the benefit to EMTs and medical offices of an electronic medical record (EMR). Fine. But taken together with the push toward socialized medicine (i.e., universal healthcare), the terrorism fears (Homeland Security), the gradual increase in so many people in their desire to be taken care of (totalitarian gov`t.), and so forth, I think we`re entering into a problem time.

What about going a different direction too? How come we`re not allowed to ask anyone their IQ, or whether they have AIDS? The IQ issue costs business huge amounts of money, and on top of that, they can`t easily fire people. Then with the privacy issues, AIDS is off limits, regardless of the overall health risk.

And parents aren`t allowed to know if their teen child is pregnant. Another so-called privacy issue. We`re seemingly comfortable storing our fundamental information "online," but we don`t want to know about certain very scary things at all.

So I guess the third thing that worries me about this cavalier attitude toward everyone`s information somewhere in a massive database, is this growing contradiction in how the information is (or might be) used.

With EmergiLink people would most likely disclose whatever they feel comfortable disclosing. If someone only wants to put their allergies down and blood type, this is still of great use to first responders.

Bottom line is that this is not about big brother creating this huge database on everyone`s personal information. Specifically, we are talking about improving the delivery of emergency care by informing those who currently respond in a reactive manor.

If someone has AID`s and wants to disclose it in their record...its there perogative and ultimately helps them and those that repsond to give them the best possible care.. I don`t see IO`s as having anythng to do with it.

I think it`s a great idea.  My son is allergic to peanuts. Although there are school protocols on what to do for my son if he ever ingests peanuts, I always wondered someday in the outside world of school, on how he can be protected.

This is the answer to that.  I think people with severe allergies, epilepsy, seizures,  can benefit from this tremendously.  When you have no control of your body`s reaction to things and can`t speak for yourself during a moment of crisis-let your thumbs fill in the blanks for the 20 questions.

LT

Okay. If this is a privately held system, where only the EMT company manages whatever optional data people would like those rescuers to know, then you`ve convinced me. I`d change my vote to "agree," but we only can vote once here on SuN.

However, it`s interesting to see the emerging trend in the discussion. If you`re going to build this company, it looks like one of your immediate points to make on the home page is exactly that: "We`re a private company offering you the choice of what you`d like an emergency rescue worker to know, if it should ever come to that."

Interesting idea, that`s for sure!

I agree with you on the disclosure issue on the site. I think people would have a higher comfort level if they knew their info was not owned by the government or "Big Brother."

I appreciate the dicussion points made here...it flushes thngs out.