A non-profit US health care system Kaiser Permanente is offering a USB flash drive that contains personal medical information to over 3 million members.

The idea is to have all essential medical records at hand in case they are needed while travelling or in a medical emergency. A small and portable read-only USB device stores potentially life-saving information, helping the owner to receive the best medical treatment. The data on the USB drive is encrypted, password-protected and cannot be modified. Any information stored on the USB device must be updated through a free service.

The USB drive holds emergency contacts, past hospitalisations with the diagnoses and procedures performed, physician’s contact information, medical issues, immunisation records, allergies, current medications, lab results for the past year, readings and images from recent readings and images of chest X-rays and EKGs. The medical record on a USB drive does not give as detailed medical information as a full medical record, but it carries very important information for treating physician to provide a rapid and more accurate diagnosis in an emergency.

Kaiser is not the first company in US to use portable USB memory drive to store medical records and for sure it is not the last one, as there are numerous applications of portable USB devices in health care and personal data storing in general.

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