“Invisible Bracelet was developed with the input of Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) over the last couple of years,” said Chris Zenthoefer, director of Docvia, which created iB. “It’s a HIPAA-compliant online application. You go online and enter your information, and then we send you a card with four stickers on it. Each sticker has a unique pin.” Zenthoefer said users place a sticker on the back of their driver’s license and key fobs for easy identification by paramedics and EMTs.
“In cases like EMSA, we’re integrating iB into their Toughbooks,” he said. “It will pull up an invisible Bracelet screen–it’s a secure URL. It’s a basic screen that looks a little like the Google search screen; all it has is an empty search field.” Medics can enter in the patient’s unique alpha-numeric PIN to access information, such as medical conditions, allergies, medications, preferred hospitals, physicians and insurance.
A unique feature is the system’s ability to automatically send text messages and e-mails to registered ICE contacts. “It’s an automated process. It just says “˜so-and-so was transported to this hospital at this time,” Zenthoefer said. “There’s no information about the patient’s condition.”
EMSA was one of the first EMS agencies in the state trained to use the system. Zenthoefer said they added 14 new EMS providers in November, and another 30-plus agencies have inquired about getting licensed at no cost. The company provides training online, which he said takes only five to 10 minutes, and it’s eligible for continuing education credit.
“The only requirement of EMS providers is that once a month they have to go online to verify the employment status of their medics to make sure they have search capability. We also provide frequent audits to make sure there’s no kind of unusual activity.”
Docvia expects to eventually roll out invisibleBracelet as a national emergency health registry. “We’re an Oklahoma-based company, and our goal was to develop it here and prove that we could reach the metro markets as well as the very rural markets. Oklahoma has been our testing ground, and we’ve had a lot of success with it.”
