secure, portable patient records
The whole concept of centralised records is flawed. We might bang on about XP, but that's only one issue. The more complicated the system the more possibilities of failure. We have seen government medical systems costing too many $millions and failing spectacularly.
If you hold our own medical records on a usb stick. Go for medical treatment anywhere, you have your complete medical history available and it gets updated with each visit to any doctor or medical service.
Could contain images, scans, EEG records, pathology results, doctors notes, medication prescribed and dispensed, etc. A more intelligent unit could be programmed to remind you when and how to take medication or give appointment reminders, or in emergencies transmit a medi-alert.
Take it home and back it up encrypted on your home computer. You run a virus scan on your own stick, the medical centre does a virus check on your stick, hopefully your stick doesn't get sick.
We rely too much on centralised servers. If your computer gets hacked the hackers get one encrypted record, not a worthwhile target. It is worth the hackers effort to get an organisations server with thousands of records.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
