The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recently launched a new plan to convert the present healthcare information infrastructure to a nationwide, electronic network for healthcare information. Currently, only thirteen percent of hospitals nationwide have electronic systems, and only 14 to 28 percent of other physicians maintain electronic systems.
Electronic healthcare systems provide many challenges. For example, oftentimes, physicians and hospitals use computer systems for billing, while they use manual filing systems for tracking medical records. Therefore, information can be lost, mislaid, or inputted incorrectly for billing purposes. Recently, different software systems, such as CareRevolution by Electronic Healthcare Systems, have provided single point-of-care products that provide one database for both billing and medical information.
Nevertheless, medical and billing information must still be transferred from the patients to the physicians manually. Further, with patients moving and increased traveling, often the patient may not have all his medical information in one place and/or on hand when he needs medical attention. While current healthcare systems allow information to be maintained and held by the healthcare provider, it is desirable for such information to be portable and held with the patent instead.
Having the proper patient medical history has been shown to improve medical care and reduce medical errors. Further, improvements in health information technology have been estimated to produce savings of up to ten percent. Therefore, there is a need for a portable device for healthcare information.