Life-Saving Patient Information can be Online, Anonymous and Usable
Submitted by: AMCC.me
2009-09-26 00:19:39
Los Angeles, CA (OPENPRESS) September 26, 2009 -- Hospital Emergency Rooms need instant access to patient medical information. Allergic reactions and dangerous drug interactions can be deadly. Time is critical. Until now, privacy was a large concern. Two brothers, who have developed medical software over the past 15 years, think they have a simple first step towards moving patient information on to the internet.
"The ER doesn't need to look up the information by patient name" said Bill Lappen, a former attorney. "We have implemented secure systems in the past, but no matter how secure we make the site, we have to assume that it will be hacked" added David Lappen, a computer design engineer from Stanford. "But providing instant access to life-saving information is too important to ignore", he added. To protect patient privacy, their system does not know to whom the medical information belongs. Since the person's identifying information is never on the system, it can't be stolen. "By enabling anonymous entry, we have protected people's privacy while allowing them to put their life-saving information in a place where it can be instantly accessed when needed", added Bill Lappen.
www.AMCC.me is the public service website they created. It allows anyone to enter medical information anonymously. The site provides a random ID which the user carries in his/her wallet. For someone to see that user's medical information, they merely enter the ID into the site. Unless the user has given them their ID, the information shown is meaningless. That same information, when associated with a patient, can save their life.
Since no identifying information is ever entered, a hacker can't determine whose information is shown. "Secure patient-controlled Electronic Medical Records are now available on the internet" said David Lappen. A sample ID has been set up on the site to allow users to evaluate the concept before setting up their own free ID.
