(A)WW and Photo-a-Day: Medical History Bracelet

For Wordless Wednesday, and also Day 10 of my Photo-a-Day self-assignment:

Medical History. On a bracelet.

Years ago, when my mother was going from place to place within the hospital, I was struck by how inefficient the record-keeping and data-gathering was. Each doctor, each lab, each treatment place required her to provide them with a full medical history, which meant a new set of forms to fill out. Since she was sick, I ended up filling out many of them, and I dreamed of the day when the medical profession joined the 21st Century, and we could carry all this data around with us on one of those new-fangled (at the time) USB “thumb drives”, in a format that each place’s program could read and import to populate whatever forms they needed.

Fast forward to recently. Things have improved somewhat: since beginning my journey through the Texas Medical Center, I have been fortunate in that the hospital I am going to  has an electronic record system, and (in most cases) data is available to all the clinics/labs. However, I still get asked questions, and need someplace to keep all this data. And, it would be nice if it was available, in electronic format, for EMS or other first responders to access in the event of an emergency.

Enter the Medical History Bracelet.

A bracelet. That you wear on your wrist.

I first saw this at the local pharmacy, but unfortunately it was too small. But, I went to their website, and sure enough they had larger sizes. And different colors. I chose a blue one, and less than a week later I had it in hand.

The bracelet comes apart to reveal a USB device, which will plug into a PC or Mac:

It is a plug and play (sort of) device.

Opening up the “drive” that has just been mounted, and you see the program (both Windows and OS X versions are included):

“I’m a Mac!” “I’m a PC!” “I don’t care!”

You start the program, and are presented with a series of screens where you can enter your medical info.

John Doe. Not exactly original, but I am not showing you MY medical info!

Medications, allergies, conditions, doctors, as well as files (e.g. x-rays and lab results) can be entered into, and stored on, the device. I spent the extra $10 on Version 3.0 of the program, which gives me the ability to actually edit the medical data on my Mac (Version 2.0 is read-only on OS X), as well as the ability to protect sensitive data by encrypting it.

The bracelet cost me $29.99: there is also a keychain ($24.99) as well as a credit-card size USB drive (39.99) available, all of which are available for ordering from their website.

Fancy jewelry it is not: however, it could prove to be a life saver! See y’all next WW!

(For more Wordless Wednesday fun, click here.)

(Disclaimer: I did not receive any compensation or other consideration for writing about this product. I purchased it, paying full retail price, and will be purchasing this product for others.)

(Note: This is also part of a self-assignment I am trying, challenging myself to take – and post – at least one picture per day, each day, during the month of September. So, check back, and see what else I come up with!)

Photographs copyright © 2012 E D Truitt

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Ed Truitt