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Vital Record Corporation
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Why is the portable medical records application needed? Who can use the portable medical records application? What is the capacity of the flash drive memory? How does the portable medical records application use the flash drive? How does the medical facility use the portable medical records flash drive? How does the user establish and update their personal medical records using the application? How does the viewing and update function work in the application? What type of support is provided for the product? How does the application place medical records on a cell phone? How does the application place a digital picture on a cell phone? What features must a cell phone have to display medical records? How are medical records displayed on a cell phone? How does the application prevent unauthorized access of medical records on the Vital Record Server? How are the medical records previously placed on a cell phone updated with new information? What is Clinical Document Architecture (CDA)? How does the application transmit a CDA Document to a medical facility? Why is the portable medical records application needed? According to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association, approximately 98,000 Americans die each year because of medical mistakes, even though extraordinary measures on patient safety have been taken over the past few years (USA Today, 5/2005). The portable medical records application provides for the recording of medical history, prescription drugs, personal doctors and specialists, emergency contacts, insurance carriers, and vital sign and physical characteristic data. This medical information is readily available to medical personnel upon admittance to a medical facility. Who can use the portable medical records application? Any individual desiring to record their medical history for emergency purposes can use the application. This is especially true for people who have serious illnesses, to the extent that immediate medical attention would be required in event of a medical emergency. A flash drive is a small USB storage device that uses special memory called flash memory to store computer programs and data files. If the flash drive is disconnected from the USB port of a computer, the special flash memory does not require any external power to preserve the programs and data that is stored within it. What is the capacity of the flash drive memory? The flash drive memory can hold up to 64 megabytes of medical information. Beta testing has shown that this capacity more than exceeds the need for recording an extremely extensive set of medical records. The USB (Universal Serial Bus) port is a common socket or port connection available on modern computers for the connection of a peripheral device. The peripheral device may be a storage device or any special device that holds information for access by the main computer. The portable medical records storage device connects easily into the USB port of a computer for ready access to the application and medical records. How does the portable medical records application use the flash drive? All the software components, both application programs and user medical record data, are stored in the flash memory of the flash drive. When the flash drive is plugged into the common USB port of a computer, the portable medical records application is automatically displayed on the computer monitor. The view, update, and administrative functions are then readily available for access by the user. How does the medical facility use the portable medical records flash drive? Hospitals and emergency medical clinics have computers. In fact, hospitals and clinics would not be able to perform as efficiently as they do without computers. Moreover, large medical facilities employ information technology personnel just to maintain their many computer systems. Admittance personnel, therefore, would simply plug the portable medical records flash drive into the USB port of a computer for immediate viewing of the records stored in the flash memory. The medical information thus viewed would be recorded in the patient files of the medical facility and used for medical treatment and care. How do medical personnel initially identify the medical records stored in the flash drive with the person being admitted to the facility? A separate data segment of the medical records stored in the flash memory of the drive includes the physical characteristics of the individual, such as height, weight, hair and eye color, identifying marks, birth date, and address. Emergency contacts are also recorded for verification. Additionally, for absolute positive identification, the portable medical records application provides for the insertion of a digital picture of the person in the personal identification section of the records. How does the application protect against unauthorized update of the medical records stored in the flash drive memory? The portable medical records application includes an option for password access to the update function. A user types a secret password of their choosing for entry to the update function. Once the secret password is established, subsequent selection of the update function will require entry of the chosen password. The password may be changed at any time at the discretion of the user. How does the user establish and update their personal medical records using the application? The user selects the update function from the main menu of the application. If a password has been established for the update function, the password must be entered before the user can continue. Initially, the user identification information is displayed in web page format. The data elements of the identification information may be entered or updated in the page as needed. The identification page, as well as all other medical information pages of the application, contains selections (buttons) to display the general, medication, doctor, medical history, and advance directive information web pages for data entry and update. How does the portable medical records application display the medical records when the flash drive is plugged into the computer? The flash drive is a special drive that has “autorun” capability. This means that the flash drive is a plug-and-play device for the operating system. Once the drive is plugged into the USB port, the computer operating system automatically starts the application without any action by the user. How does the viewing and update function work in the application? No special application is needed to view and update the medical records. The viewing and update functions use the installed web browser of the computer, such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla’s Firefox. Is an Internet connection required at any time to record or to view the medical records in the flash drive? No. The medical records are not vulnerable to access by any entity on the untrusted Internet. More specifically, the portable medical records application and medical record data are totally self-contained in the flash memory of the flash drive. However, the cell phone option does require a temporary Internet connection to send the medical record data in encrypted form to the Viral Record Corporation server for download to the cell phone. How does the application provide for backup of the medical records to another storage device, such as a hard disk or CD? The application includes a special administrative function to backup and restore medical records. This simple function provides for the selection of the storage device. Once selected, the application performs the backup or restore automatically. What type of support is provided for the product? The Vital Record Corporation provides telephone, Email, and web contact page support at no cost to the customer. If a password has been forgotten or some other issue arises, simply place a telephone call, send an Email, or complete the web site contact page, and a customer support person will provide immediate help. How does the application place medical records on a cell phone? The application has a function to send the medical records stored on the flash drive to the Vital Record server. The records are sent over the Internet in encrypted form to prevent unauthorized viewing. The medical records are then sent to the cell phone over the Internet from the server. Once the medical records are successfully stored on the cell phone, the medical records are automatically and permanently removed from the server. How does the application place a digital picture on a cell phone? The application has a function to send a digital picture stored on the computer system to the Vital Record Server. As with the medical records, the digital picture is then sent to the cell phone over the Internet from the server. Once the digital picture is successfully stored on the cell phone, it is automatically removed from the server. A digital picture file must be of type "png" and no greater than 1.5 inches square for storage on the cell phone with the medical records. What features must a cell phone have to display medical records? The cell phone must contain Java support (Java 2 Micro Edition - J2ME). In addition, the Java configuration must support Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC 1.0 or greater) and Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP 2.0.) The cell phone vendor will determine if these configuration features are available on the cell phone. How are medical records displayed on a cell phone? The records are displayed using a small Java program that reads and displays the medical records stored on the cell phone. The Java program is installed on the cell phone via Internet access to the Vital Record Corporation server. Internet access to the server is performed using a simple Internet (HTTP) address entered at the cell phone. The application management software of the cell phone will then automatically retrieve and install the Java program once the Internet address is given on the phone. How does the application prevent unauthorized access of medical records on the Vital Record Server? When the medical records are ready to be sent to the server from the application, the user supplies the invoice number under which the application was purchased as well as a password. The invoice number is used at the server to identify the users medical records, and the password is used to prevent unauthorized viewing of the medical records at the server. The medical records, invoice number, and password are sent from the application to the server in encrypted form. When the medical records are ready to be downloaded to a cell phone, the user furnishes the invoice number and password that was used previously to send the records to the server. Once the medical records are successfully placed on the cell phone, they are permanently removed from the server. How are the medical records previously placed on a cell phone updated with new information? The user repeats the process of sending the updated medical records on the flash drive to the Vital Record server. The user then selects the update button on the cell phone to download the updated medical records to the phone. What is Clinical Document Architecture? The HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) is a document markup standard (XML) that gives the structure and semantics of "clinical documents" for the purpose of transmission between medical facilities or entities. How does the application transmit a CDA Document to a medical facility? The application has a function to create a CDA Document from the medical information stored on the portable storage unit. The application also provides the option to send the newly created CDA Document to a medical facility that supports the HL7 standard. The application sends the CDA Document over the Internet using the IP or URL address of the medical facility. The application uses the Minimal Link Level Protocol MLLP) specified in the HL7 standard in the transmission of the medical records. |
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 2004-2010 Vital Record Corporation, All Rights ReservedLast modified: |
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