Smart card use in the U.S. is subject of university’s study
Smart cards may not be just for Visa and Mastercard transactions. Variations that include a CPU and expanded storage capacity have been available for years and are widely used in Europe and Asia, but have never really taken off in the U.S.
That situation may be about to change, based on the outcome of a study being conducted at the Washington University School of Medicine, in which pregnant women are being given health ID cards with their demographic and medical information, to use during their natal care. In this study, half the participants are being tracked with the cards and card readers, and the other half are being handled with pen and paper records.
The study will document the improvements in access (if any) and other benefits of using smart cards to automate these patients’ medical records access, according to Dr. Gilad Gross, MD, who is directing the study. In addition to patient demographics, the smart cards include lab results, images, and diagnosis. Gross presented some data at the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) meeting held earlier this week in San Francisco. (For more information from SCCM, see the March issue of The BBI Newsletter, a sister publication to Healthcare InfoTech.)
If adopted, the system would have modest costs to both the patients and providers. Cards for individuals are about $5 to $7 in quantities, and readers around $75 to $100. Such a storage approach leaves the patient as the "owner" of his or her medical record, and in control of who accesses it, why and when other radical ideas whose time may have finally come in America.
Arthur Gasch
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content