In one of my many former lives I worked in cardiac pacing. Being a pacemaker representative meant you were on call 24/7/365, in those days tied to both a pager and cell phone. When a patient has a pacemaker or AICD implanted around thirty days after implant the patient receives a patient ID card. Essentially this is a laminated card that you are supposed to carry in your wallet all the time. It has the model, type, and serial number of the implanted device and a 1-800 number.
Going back to being a pacemaker representative…typical scenario. Patient shows up at the ER at 2:00AM with chest pain. The wife pulls out this card and gives it to the ER doctor who then calls the 1-800…and more than likely the cardiologist that the wife knows. (This is dependent if they are in same city, or same IDN, or country!). Lucky me (gets paged), then drives over to the hospital with my programmer in tow, arrive in the ER go into the room and “interrogate” the pacemaker. (That is the only way you can know what the device is programmed to). They also have already completed a 12 lead EKG and maybe noted some ST elevation or depression. It would be ideal at this time also to obtain a previous 12 lead EKG for serial comparison. Meanwhile time has passed maybe a half hour or more. I would then talk to the cardiologist, get his OK, and then change any parameters and then reprogram the pacemaker. For over ten plus years…just thought there has to be a better way as this truly is archaic and wastes a lot of time, when time is precious. There just has to be a “better way”…and been mulling this around…for years. The aha moment came when I ran across BluStor. Now when the cardiologist or EP doc interrogates the device at follow-up, he or she can download via BTLE the complete interrogation in the BlueStor card…(most current settings). In addition, they can upload a complete 12 lead EKG.
Replaying the previous scenario. Patient arrives at the ER. Wife pulls out the BluStor card. ER doc calls again the cardiologist and maybe the pacing representative. ER doctor reads the interrogation on his laptop, i-Phone, or I-Pad, via BTLE (before he or she does this the wife provides finger printer authentication on the card). The previous 12 lead EKG is downloaded for serial comparison. Now the cardiologist and the ER doctor have the window of information that they need to treat the patient in seconds…instead of waiting and waiting. When the pacemaker representative arrives, he or she can make any changes to the device and then upload that information back into the BluStor card. So now you have it..the first ever true encrypted vault of portable medical device history information that can be carried world-wide. If I had a pacemaker and AICD implanted, I would gladly pay for this…peace of mind..big time.
