New Secure, Info-Filled Patient ‘Smart Card’ On Horizon
BY JOHN TOSCANO A
revolutionary new health care t o o l a p a t i e n t A“smart card”—could soon be available to thousands of patients in three Queens hospitals, assuring that doctors and nurses would have a patient’s vital medical history at their fingertips within minutes. In some cases, this could mean the difference between life and death.

The ‘smart cards’ would be similar to the above used at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

The new technological aid, called a Patient Health Smart Card, is about the size of a credit card. It would eliminate, especially in emergencies, the necessity to try to extract the vital information from someone unable to remember it readily or be lucid enough to impart it. It would also save valuable time in starting emergency treatments.

“This first step is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of removing waste, duplication and errors in the health care equation,” said Alan D. Aviles, president of the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation.

Kenneth L. Davis, president and chief executive officer of Mount Sinai Medical Center, stated, “Whether it’s an emergency or routine visit, patient data is vital to ensuing the appropriate treatment in a timely fashion.” Davis also serves as dean of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The smart card has been distributed among patients at Elmhurst Hospital Center (EHC) in Elmhurst and Mt. Sinai Medical Center as part of a pilot project started in 2003 which introduced it in New York City.

The card is produced by Siemens Communications Inc., a major communications products and services firm, which is presently in negotiations with EHC, Queens Hospital Center (QHC) in Jamaica and The Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan to produce and distribute smart cards.

EHC and QHC are part of the city Health & Hospitals Corporation (HHC), which operates the municipal hospital system.

Mt. Sinai Hospital, one of the most prominent and well-respected institutions in the city, has affiliations with several other health care institutions, including Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens in Astoria, the former Astoria General Hospital. These hospitals are among eight in the metropolitan area that are planning the initial distribution of 100,000 smart cards, a Siemens spokesman said. Overall, there are 45 affiliated and related health care facilities in the metropolitan area that would be linked in the smart card initiative.

Siemens, which has done similar large deployments elsewhere has plans to expand smart card technology in the metropolitan area in conjunction with Mount Sinai and EHC to create a regional network for the benefit of those hospitals’ patients.

Aviles stated: “With rising health care costs, these hospitals and Siemens are working together to deploy a Patient Health Smart Card that can fundamentally change health care delivery with more secure and cost-effective transfers of patient records.”

Describing the present effort to distribute the smart card more widely in this area, Davis of Mount Sinai stated:

“With Siemens, we are working with one of the world’s best technology leaders to help improve patient care and provide hospitals with more readily accessible information in a secure and portable format.”

Joe Licata, president of Siemens’ enterprise division, said that the regional program being discussed has the potential to become one of the largest deployments of patient smart card technology in the United States.

“With this innovative application of smart card technology, New York City patients can benefit from having direct control of key medical data on a highly portable, secure platform. This is essential in a metropolitan environment where people are always on the go and where a high density of health care facility options exists.

Under the regional plan being discussed, Siemens will provide technical and organizational services for the introduction of the Healthcare Patient Data Card and will deploy card management systems and software to help health care providers maintain and update patient data throughout the card’s life cycle.

The proposed multiyear agreement between Siemens, Mount Sinai and EHC also includes ongoing development of smart card technologies and integration with clinical and other information systems related to patient care. No estimate of cost implications was mentioned.

The chip-embedded cards—about the size of a credit card—provide access to the holder’s medical information and help to reduce medical errors caused by misinformation or lack of patient data, Siemens representatives said in describing the program.

When admitted to a hospital, a patient would insert the card into a device called a reader and enter a private PIN (Personal Identification Number) to unlock the card, giving the health care facility access to the information on the card. This would include: patient demographics, chronic diseases, allergies, current medications, lab results, medical histories and other important patient information.

Other benefits of the card include helping to decrease patient waiting times and improving sharing of patient information between providers. The card could be especially helpful to anyone out of the city who suddenly requires medical attention. Just presenting the smart card rapidly provides a care giver with a great deal of necessary information.

Dario Centorcelli, public affairs officer at EHC, explained that with the experience gained with the pilot program at EHC, Siemens now wants to make it more global and establish it nationwide in all hospitals.

Centorcelli said the device used to access the information from the smart card eventually would be available in doctors’ offices as well as hospitals. Also, as the technology becomes more developed, any additions to a cardholder’s medical history could be added.

“Say you went to a doctor and he discovered some other medical problem. That information would be added to the card so that if you went to another doctor or hospital a day or two later, the new information will be in the card and ready for the second doctor’s use,” he explained.