Neat little wallet-sized "Smart PHR" card

February 19, 2008

The health IT industry has been working on personal health records (PHRs) for a while and I suspect it will take years before they really take off in a big way. PHRs are likely not to become prevalent at least until the ambulatory care market starts to recognize their utility and doctors convince patients to use them.

MiCard Photo

I just ran across this new device: MiCard. MiCARD is the size of a credit card (just a bit thicker) and you load your medical record onto it. Once you’ve got it loaded, the following information is basically carried around in your hip pocket or purse:

* Critical Medical Conditions
* Personal Photo
* Blood Type
* Physician Information
* Medications & Dosages
* Allergies
* Insurance Information
* Eyeglass and Contact Lens Prescription Data
* Immunizations

Seems pretty slick. I’ll check them out in more detail and see how they fare. If anyone knows more about it or has used it, please leave a comment here for others to benefit from as well.

  • http://www.clinicore.blogspot.com Mark

    Is there a bloggers meet-up at HIMSS next week?
    Mark

  • http://shahid.shah.org Shahid N. Shah

    Yes, one is planned — it will be announced shortly.

  • http://MyMedicalRecords.com Scott Smith

    February 20, 2008

    Dear Dr. Shah:

    I read with great interest your article on the MiCard. We think we have something even better, much more robust than any card can be and an inexpensive, easy-to-use alternative to electronic personal health records. MyMedicalRecords does give its members a card with a code on the back for emergency personnel to access selected medical records online.

    MMR has contracts with organizations covering more than 30 million lives to provide our services. Contrasting MMR to other popular EMR and PHR products, MMR is delivering the most user-friendly, convenient and versatile web-based Personal Health Record available today. Using our proprietary patent pending technologies, complete patient information including actual lab test results, radiology reports and images, progress notes and all of a patient’s charts can be uploaded or faxed with annotated voice notes and comments directly into the user’s password-secured account. Users do not need to install any special software or use any special hardware to use our service.

    MMR also has integrated other advanced features, such as multilingual translation, a drug interaction database of more than 20,000 medications, calendaring for prescription refills and doctor appointments, and private voicemail for a doctor’s message and other personal uses.

    There also is a special “Emergency Log-In” feature that allows a doctor to access a user’s account to view their most important medical information in the event of a medical emergency. To ensure individual privacy, specific data, such as prescriptions, allergies, blood type and copies of actual medical files or images, are pre-selected by the user for inclusion in the online read-only Emergency Folder.

    In addition, MMR also includes an online ESafeDeposit Box feature that enables users to securely store any important document in a virtual “lock box” and access them anytime from anywhere using an Internet-connected computer or PDA. These documents can include Advanced Directives, Wills, insurance policies, birth certificates, photos of Family, Pets and Property, and more. MMR is clearly one of the most complete user-friendly Personal Health Records available today (I can provide details).

    I would encourage you to visit MMR and set up a complimentary account. Simply go to http://www.mymedicalrecords.com and sign up using registration code MMRBLOG. I would be interested in your experience and hope that you will include us in any further discussions of medical cards, PHRs, and EMRs. I could also send you more information by email or snail mail (the latter allows me to send a bit more than I’d want to clog your email with). Recently, we sent out a release about MMR Pro, which will better enable physicians to put patient records into secure, online accounts.

    Sincerely,
    Scott S. Smith
    Director of Public Relations
    MyMedicalRecords.com
    11000 Santa Monica Blvd. #430
    Los Angeles CA 90067
    888/808-4667
    Ext 123 (Cell: 310/254-4051)
    ssmith@mmrmail.com

  • http://www.gs3india.com komgs3

    Being a Nurse, I know the importance client data holds in order to deliver effective care. More often than not this vital component for treatment is missed out or forgotten when there is change of consultants or Hospitals. PHR card can greatly minimize problems that can result from unintended omission.
    My suggestion is that these cards include all information that could be of medical significance. For maximum efficiency, all Healthcare facilities must be equipped with facilities to support the use of the PHR card.
    Advancements of this nature should be greatly appreciated.

    Komala RN
    GS3 India Pvt. Ltd
    http://www.gs3india.com

  • http://www.micardinc.com Tracy Evans

    Dear Dr. Shah,

    With all due respect to Mr. Smith, most of the features he ran down on the list of his online solution’s attributes are available through our feature laden online PHR which is used to populate our device, the “MiCARD”.

    There is one significant advantage to our solution that he is overlooking, (and given his position it is certainly understandable that he would choose to do so), and that is that despite the litany of features he mentions in his post, in a triage situation First Responders, EMT’s and ER personnel still cannot “instantly” access the information they need to make aggressive treatment decisions using his solution without the use of a peripheral device, (in his case web access is actually necessary and that is simply not realistic in triage situations), and that can significantly impact not only survival but degree of recovery from a catastrophic illness or injury, where MiCARD powered by NoMoreClipboard.com does.

    While I applaud the functionality their solution possesses I must admit disappointment with Mr. Smith’s subjective, and somewhat self serving assessment of my own as it is obvious that he didn’t take the time to investigate our PHR’s, (built by our partner NoMoreClipboard.com) unique Physician specific forms completion software or our EMR interoperability tool which allows a patient’s physician to reconcile his EMR, (any EMR I might add), data with the patient’s PHR data.

    I would also like to extend an invitation to provide you and your readers with a more in depth look at what MiCARD powered by NoMoreClipboard.com offers as it is the first PHR offering to provide a rich feature laden online interface which also allows the storage of Living Wills, Advance Directives, Biomedical device integration, Forms completion technology, (we populate your physician’s unique forms with your PHR data so you never have to complete a clipboard in a physician’s office again!), by visiting our site at http://www.micardinc.com or http://www.nomoreclipboard.com .

    If you would like additional information or the opportunity to do a more in depth review of our product/service offering please feel free to contact me.

    Thank you for your time.

    Respectfully,

    Tracy L. Evans
    President
    MiCARD, Inc.
    646 Arch Street
    Macon, GA 31201
    888-642-2739
    tracy@micardinc.com

  • Ken Carroll

    I agree with komgs3 that the MiCard should include all relevant medical information, and from my understanding, it does.

    I believe; however, that komgs3 missed one vital point when he/she referred to medical facilities having the required equipment to read the card: The MiCard has a built-in screen (think iPod for a reference) and all medical information can be read directly off of the card. No peripherals are needed and that’s what I believe sets this card apart. So ANY medical facility, anywhere can read this card. It’s that easy.

    I’ve seen a demo of this card and it is amazingly easy to set up via the internet, but once the info is entered the card stands alone as a source of patient information.

    When I saw this card, the first person I thought of was my mother who has four different physicians (a GP and three specialists) who prescribe her medications. She has quite a job keeping up with everything. This card will make her life easier on a weekly basis and could very easily save her life.

  • David

    Dr. Shah,
    I came across a phr called The Smart PHR. It seemed to be really good, but I’m not sure. Have you ever heard of it? The website is http://www.thesmartphr.com. If you get a chance to look at the site, can you tell me what you think.

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