Medical Smart Card System for Patient Record Management

Rising healthcare spending has led to an increase in calls for ways to reduce the cost of healthcare. Amid the debate on the best approach on cut costs in the healthcare system, one of the few bipartisan provisions is the need to integrate modern technology into the storage and transfer of medical records. Current attempts to establish such electronic medical records are challenged by concerns about patient privacy, issues with the incorporation of old records, and budget limitations. We propose the development of personal portable healthcare record smart cards and a corresponding framework to simplify maintenance and transfer of patient records as an incremental step towards a nationalized electronic records system. Our proposal is a feasible and cost-effective system that applies existing technology to address inefficiencies of the current paper based medical records system; simultaneously, it also serves as a transition system to facilitate the adoption of completely electronic medical records.