Pilot mhealth project between government agencies and Lifesquare is to start in California
Marin County, California, is set to be the location of a state of the art mhealth pilot program that will use QR codes that are printed on stickers to help paramedics to gain more vital medical information about patients in emergency situations.
The pilot program is a partnership between Silicon Valley start-up, Lifesquare, and two emergency response agencies.
The pilot program is expected to run for a complete year. The goal at Lifesquare is to have all residents complete their personal health information in their profiles on the official website, and then attach their unique personal QR codes in a place where emergency responders will be able to find them so that they can be scanned by paramedics using an iPhone.
The sticker’s secure link connects the emergency responder with the information they need about an individual’s medical conditions and the drugs and other medications being taken, so that more informed decisions can be made during a medical response call.
According to Lifesquare, its initial goal will be to encourage people to register on the website.
Their main hurdle, according to the company, will be to overcome the perception that there are privacy concerns. However, as the director of Lifesquare’s public outreach, Ryan Chamberlain, said, “The way that we look at is that people already put their information into their driver’s license, that’s owned by the government, people put their information into credit card company’s and that’s owned by private corporations.”
Chamberlain added that in this circumstance, however, you will actually own your own profile and no one else will be able to change it or have access to it, except emergency medical responders in an emergency situation.
Residents of Marin County are now able to register themselves by obtaining their own Lifesquare stickers at any CVS pharmacy location. Once they have been registered, they should attach the stickers with the QR codes to places where emergency medical responders are likely to be able to find them, for example, on a bicycle helmet, so that if there is ever an emergency, the paramedics or firefighters can use a special mhealth app to scan it and find out if there are any medication uses or drug allergies of which they should be aware.
