PRINCETON JUNCTON, NJ -- 05/19/08 --
Another regional healthcare network
in Spokane, Wash. is starting to use smart card technology, attendees
learned during the healthcare track at the joint Smart Card Alliance annual
meeting and CTST conference last week.
LifeNexus is starting to deploy its smart card-based Personal Health Card
with Inland Northwest Health Services (INHS), a member of the Northwest
Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) connecting 38 hospitals in
northwest Washington and Idaho, Christopher Maus, president and CEO of
LifeNexus, announced.
The goal of a RHIO is to facilitate the sharing of electronic medical
records between physicians, labs and hospitals across large geographic
areas, but to make that work, "we have to engage the consumer," Maus said.
"We are going to focus on the patients. The LifeNexus Personal Health Card
will act as a personal key people use to unlock access to their medical
information," he said.
Maus sees two important advantages to using smart card technology for
storing personal health and insurance information -- security and
portability. The LifeNexus card will store personal, insurance and medical
information that people normally provide when they fill out forms at a
doctor's office or hospital. It will also store any allergies, medicine
restrictions, health conditions, and information about recent medical
results and lab tests. The information is protected by a PIN, so consumers
have control over who can access it. Initially the firm will focus on
equipping emergency rooms to accept the card, speeding up admission and
providing important medical information.
Paul Contino, Mount Sinai Medical Center's vice president of IT, agrees
accurate patient identification is a critical issue in healthcare data
management. "The challenge with RHIOs is the highly error prone process
they use to match patients and data," said Contino. "Doctors won't use
information unless they are certain the data is accurate."
Contino has led an effort at Mount Sinai to issue smart card-based Personal
Health Cards (PHC) to patients. The goal is to make sure patients are
accurately linked with their personal medical information. Language
barriers, common names or even common addresses can lead to errors and
result in commingled or duplicate patient records. Correcting those
records is a big expense for hospitals; Mount Sinai has had two major
database cleanup projects in the last three years, costing more than two
million dollars each.
Mount Sinai joined with nine other institutions in the greater New York
City area to create a regional HealthSmart Network and accept a common PHC.
More information about the Smart Card Alliance and these healthcare
projects can be found at www.smartcardalliance.org.
About the Smart Card Alliance
The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association
working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread
application of smart card technology.
Through specific projects such as education programs, market research,
advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its
members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance
is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion
on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For
more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.
Contact:
Deb Montner
Montner & Associates
203-226-9290
dmontner@montner.com
