Healthcare Trend: Managing Patient Information

Lake Pointe Medical Center announced today that SMART Association, Inc. ("SMART") has successfully installed its new Smart card-based patient access system called "LifeMed" at the hospital.

The LifeMed Smart card software system has been developed for hospitals to quickly and accurately identify patients and help manage them through the admissions process. Patients with the Smart card will have the ability to view and contribute to their overall medical records, giving the provider a more complete medical picture. The LifeMed Smart cards will be used within the Lake Pointe Medical Center initially, and then extended to some local physician offices who are affiliated with Lake Pointe, as well as local ambulance services who want to access the emergency information stored on the Smart card. It is expected that 10,000 cards will be issued during the first year of the program at Lake Pointe.

David Batchelor, CEO for SMART commented, "For over 17 years, SMART has provided healthcare organizations with consumer relationship membership programs that strengthen patient loyalty by providing rewards and benefits, accessible by a branded membership card. So we thought that if a patient was going to carry a membership card, why not have that card carry medical information too? After a great deal of research, SMART recognized Smart card technology as a natural extension of our business model and its value to the hospital and patient. By adding medical data to secure Smart cards, we reduce the admissions time and increase patient admittance accuracy. With the patient’s medical data carried in their wallet, it allows emergency responders to read the medical data on the card and gather valuable life-saving medical information, even if the patient is unconscious. We expect the patients will embrace using Smart cards to manage their data, not only at the hospital, but as a method of connecting and controlling their personal electronic patient health records."

Eric Evans, chief operating officer of Lake Pointe was equally enthusiastic. "Right now, there is a strong movement to empower patients and provide them with access to their medical information — their medical information. That is the essence of consumer-driven healthcare. The Internet-age market has responded with a host of electronic health record portals for patients to build and control their medical records. However, the problem with the model has been the inability for the providers to access that information during the delivery of services. Patients have spent time collecting records, but have no efficient means to distribute that information."

What the LifeMed platform provides is a bridge by which the patient-developed information can be easily utilized by the physicians and hospitals. With LifeMed, hospitals are able to utilize their existing data networks and allow patient information to flow into their systems, thereby creating a more complete and more accurate medical picture of that patient.

[Debra Montner @ SMART Card Alliance]

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