Do you need to have more confidence about the decisions you make regarding your medical care?

To get the health care you deserve take charge of your health care records and carry your medical history with you at all times. You will be an empowered patient with greatly improved the doctor patient communication and decrease the chances for medical errors.

If you have a chronic illness, take prescriptive drugs or suffer severe allergic reactions you need to inform the emergency or medical professionals treating you - tell a story that helps them help you.

Professionals generally suggest that you collect at least three generations of medical history. Relatives whose medical history has the most impact on you include your first- (children, siblings and parents) and second-degree relatives (grandchildren, nieces/nephews, aunts/uncles and grandparents).

The best place to keep that information is a Code Amber Alertag.

19.2 Billion or 20 bucks?

The government has mandated that all medical records be converted from paper to digital records over the next few years. They have also budgeted 19.2 billion dollars in stimulus money to be handed out to help defray the cost of doing so. Those are your tax dollars by the way. The cost could rise to over 27 billion dollars over the next 10 years.

"A big part of where the government is going is to try to make the data flow more freely amongst providers and hospitals so that your data goes with you instead of staying with the hospital or doctor," said Dr. Michael Swiernik, UCLA Director of Medical Information.

Sounds great, right? But what actually has to happen to make it work?

Currently, some hospitals are making their patient information systems available to their participating doctors so the medical records can be shared and updated between them. It’s a start but not how the program is supposed to work. See Dr. Swiernik’s statement above. Your data is supposed to go with you, not just “staying with the hospital or doctor”.

For the program to work as proposed there has to be a centralized data base that contains all of the electronic medical records for every patient that is accessible by every doctor, clinic, hospital etc. Also, each doctor, hospital, clinic etc. must update the database anytime the patient’s information changes. Updates are the easy part.

Each health care provider must input the patients’ information to create the database. There is the rub. Who goes first? Who starts the process of putting your medical records into the database? How is the database accessed? What equipment is required? How does your doctor get registered as an authorized health care provider in the system?

Do you think that your doctor has the staff or the time and equipment to input every one of their patients' information into that database? Probably not.

Here is a simple $20 solution to a multi billion dollar problem - Code Amber Alertag.

My personal medical records are available to any doctor, hospital, emergency room, EMT or clinic I choose to give access. Anywhere in the world.

When I got my Alertag I simply went to the web site and entered my personal medical information into the secure (256 bit encryption – just like my bank) server. There are two types of information, public and private.

The public information is accessible by entering my ten digit security code on the secure web page and is intended to be used by emergency personnel, like EMT’s and emergency room staff, if I am in an accident or otherwise incapacitated. Public information includes any allergies, conditions, treatments or my current medications. This information enables emergency personnel to treat me appropriately based on my current information.

The public information also provides emergency contact information so they can contact my wife for access to my private records, by entering my PIN on the secure web site, if I can’t give it to them and they need additional information on my conditions. And my wife will be glad to know where I am and that I am being taken care of properly.

My private medical records area contains extensive information regarding my medical history over my entire life time. All of this information I entered myself, including images of old x-rays, and now can be maintained by me and my doctors.

Of course I also got Alertags for my wife, my daughter, son-in-law and my two beautiful granddaughters.

To sum it up we are in total control of our personal medical records and you can be too. They are available instantly anywhere in the world and it only cost me 20 bucks each.

So that’s how you can solve a 19 billion dollar problem with a $20 product.

When You Travel do You Carry Your Medical Records With You?

What would happen if you or a member of your family were in a strange city or even another country and had a medical emergency?

Your personal medical records are back home in your Doctor's office in a file on a shelf. Worse yet, your Doctor's office is closed and they can only help you if the answering service can contact them right away and your Doctor can remember enough about your medications, allergies and any conditions your are being treated for to help your attending physician, or Emergency Medical Technician, with the proper course of treatment. It could be worse, if you are unconscious or incapacitated and cannot speak for yourself, the attending medical professional would not even know whom to try to contact, leaving them no option but to do their best with no pertinent information about you or your current condition.

When time is of the essence, the above scenario is unacceptable and could cost you, or a loved one, their life.

Over 100,000 people die every year from preventable medical errors. That makes this the fifth leading cause of death in the United States alone. Over 90% of those errors could have been avoided if the EMT or doctor had quick and easy access to vital information about the patient when first treated.

Emergency personnel are trained to look for Emergency Medical Information when they arrive on the scene. Unfortunately, they rarely find it.

Fortunately, you have a secure and affordable solution for you and your family that will protect you world wide.

The Code Amber Alertag is always with you and provides secure access (256 bit encryption, the same as your bank uses) to your Personal Medical Records electronically within seconds from anywhere in the world from any Internet enabled device including smart phones. Literally everything a Doctor or EMT would need to know in order to treat you or a family member at their finger tips in seconds.

Code Amber Alertag, never leave home without it.

AT&T Launches QR Code Scanning App for BlackBerry and Android

AT&T Launches QR Code Scanning App for BlackBerry and Android

We’ve talked a lot about how QR codes are poised to take off in the mainstream and now AT&T is jumping on the bandwagon with a new set of tools for Android and BlackBerry phones.

The company has just announced its AT&T Code Scanner application and its AT&T Create-a-Code service. Code Scanner is a free app for BlackBerry and Android (Android) devices that scans both 2D (QR and datamatrix) and 1D (UPC and EAN) barcodes. You can get it from the BlackBerry App World or the Android Market (Android Market) or by going to http://scan.mobi/ on your mobile device.

Information on the Code Amber Alertag is instantly accessible by scanning the QR code on the Alertag.

730,000 kids die every year due to accidents

kids ages 5 to 14 get hurt more often than bikers of any other age! Among American children and adolescents, sports and recreational activities comprise about 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries. Head injury is the leading cause of wheeled sports related deaths. In fact, among children ages 0 to 14, traumatic brain injuries result in 400,000 emergency room visits every year, according to healthline.com. Thankfully, more kids are wearing helmets and carrying Code Amber Alertags.

A study by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality says sports-related injuries are a major factor of kids visits to the emergency room. In 2006, 22 percent of hospital emergency department visits were for kids ages 5 to 17 due to sports-related injuries. Boys had three times more visits than girls. Teens also outnumbered younger children – teens were five times more likely to be treated in emergency departments.

When a kid arrive at the hospital having suffered a head trauma, they may be incoherent or worse unconscious. Who will answer the hospital staffs 20 questions…Allergies, preexisting conditions, blood type, medications and so on.

That is why the prepared parent has each of their children… and themselves carry the Code Amber Alertag. The unthinkable may happen and if it did you would be assured of the proper treatment because the health professions providing services were well informed.

"Summer is what we call trauma season - It's a Peak Time for Accidents. "

So says Matthew Denenberg, division chief for pediatrics at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Summer is always a scary season. Swimming, biking, gardening, hiking, adventure travel — contribute to a rise in injury and illness related to all that fun in the sun.

Find out what you can do to protect yourself and your family while having some summer fun.

Natural Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol (Page 1) :: Diabetes Self-Management

High cholesterol has long been known to raise the risk of heart and blood vessel disease in people with diabetes and without. Unfortunately, it’s very common among Americans generally, including those with diabetes. The good news is that there’s a lot you can do to lower your cholesterol and, consequently, lower your risk of heart disease. Making the effort to lower blood cholesterol is especially important for people with diabetes — Type 1 or Type 2 — who have a higher risk of heart disease than the general public.

Read More - Natural Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol (Page 1) :: Diabetes Self-Management

Code Amber Alertag alerts medical personnel to conditions such as Diabetes

While GPS tracking can answer the “where” question,

the Code Amber Alertag knows the answers to the “who, what
and when” questions that first responders to emergencies
need to know to provide informed treatment.

2 Way GPS has helped the lives of thousands by guiding emergency
services to the precise location of people and pets in need of immediate
attention. Getting there quickly however is only the first step.

That’s why everyone needs a Code Amber Alertag

Diabetes drug risks B12 deficiency

LONDON - PATIENTS treated over long periods with metformin, a common drug for diabetes, are at risk of developing vitamin B12 deficiency which is also likely to get worse over time, according to a study published on Friday.

Dutch scientists who carried out the study said the findings suggest that regular checking of vitamin B-12 levels during long-term metformin treatment should be 'strongly considered' to try to prevent deficiency and its effects.

Coen Stehouwer of Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands, whose study was published in the British Medical Journal, said symptoms of B12 deficiency include fatigue, mental changes, anaemia and nerve damage known as neuropathy. All these symptoms can easily be misdiagnosed as being due to diabetes and its complications, or to ageing, he said, but checking B12 levels could help doctors to assess the real cause and treat it if it was found to be B12 deficiency.

Read the complete article here.

Do you need to have more confidence about the decisions you make regarding your medical care?

To get the health care you deserve take charge of your health care records and carry your medical history with you at all times. You will be an empowered patient with greatly improved the doctor patient communication and decrease the chances for medical errors.

If you have a chronic illness, take prescriptive drugs or suffer severe allergic reactions you need to inform the emergency or medical professionals treating you… tell a story that helps them help you.

Professionals generally suggest that you collect at least three generations of medical history. Relatives whose medical history has the most impact on you include your first- (children, siblings and parents) and second-degree relatives (grandchildren, nieces/nephews, aunts/uncles and grandparents).

The best place to keep that information is a Code Amber Alertag.

Over 100,000 people die every year from preventable medical errors.

That makes this the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. Over 90% of those errors could have been avoided if the EMT or doctor had quick and easy access to vital information about the patient when first treated.

Emergency personnel are trained to look for Emergency Medical Information when they arrive on the scene. Unfortunately, they rarely find it. With Code Amber Alertag they can access the medical information you chose to make available, including dangerous allergic reactions, by simply entering the Security Code printed on the tag at IDAmber.com's secure web site (Demo). The information display on IDAmber.com is optimized for cell phones, and all other wireless devices, providing immediate access to your vital information on the scene.

It's smarter the have a Code Amber Alertag and not need it than to need it and not have one.

Code Amber Alertag - Bringing Medical Alerts into the 21st Century

Code Amber Alertag is a service which provides access to your secure digital information to you, your loved ones or first responders in emergency situations. Each personal Code Amber Alertag is a secure account. Code Amber Alertag accounts can store photos, documents, emergency medical information, contacts (family members, doctors, etc.). In case of an accident or emergency, your personal information can be retrieved by reading the QR (Quick Response) Code on the tag from most smart phones or the human readable number can be typed into any web enabled wireless device for quick and easy, yet secure, access to your vital personal information.

In the event of insulin shock (Hypoglycemia), time is of the essence in receiving proper treatment as you know. If the affected individual is carrying Alertag, complete information for their treatment, and any potentially complicating factors, is available within seconds by accessing the person’s profile on our secure web site from any web enabled device. This can be a life saving situation.

It is smarter to have a Code Amber Alertag and not need it, than to need it and not have one.

Dial for H-E-L-P

The Congressional E-911 Caucus has introduced legislation to upgrade the country’s 911 technology, by passing “The Next Generation 911 Preservation Act of 2010.” Passage will provide grant funding for the nation’s 6,000 911 facilities.

State taxes on phone bills currently fund the 911 call centers which receive more than 650,000 emergency calls daily. The Next Generation 911Preservation Act provides a five year federal grant program to support state 911 services and upgrade the technology.

One persistent problem with mobile phones making assistance calls, was electronically identifying the location of the caller as there is with landlines. GPS LBS is doing much to alleviate that concern. Researchers predict the U.S. GPS LBS market will grow at an annual rate of 43.1 percent through 2010.

Unfortunately, the number of potential Alzheimer’s victims that will wander off and become lost will increase exponentially as the boomer generation grows older and will place significant demands on the system. A situation demanding a Code Amber Alertag.

Code Amber Alertag | How It Works | Secure and private medical records

Try it free for 60 days.

Code Amber Alertag is a discrete digital ID tag that fits on your keychain and contains vital life-saving information in case of emergency. Click here to register your new Code Amber Alrtag, then return to this page for complete information on how to best use your Tag.

Over 100,000 people die every year from preventable medical errors. That makes this the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. Over 90% of those errors could have been avoided if the EMT or doctor had quick and easy access to vital information about the patient when first treated.

Emergency personnel are trained to look for Emergency Medical Information when they arrive on the scene. Unfortunately, they rarely find it. With Code Amber Alertag they can access the medical information you chose to make available, including dangerous allergic reactions, by simply entering the Security Code printed on the tag at IDAmber.com's secure website.

Code Amber Alertag | How It Works | Secure and private medical records

Emergency care obstetricians need to know of pre-existing medical conditions as they can lead to obstetrical complications.

The primary concerns are the preexisting conditions of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and substance abuse. All of these conditions may adversely affect the developing fetus and therefore, may complicate the delivery of the fetus and compromise the health of the mother and child.

There are a significant number of problems that may be classified as Obstetrical Emergencies. These emergencies include, but are not limited to the following: abortion, (spontaneous, threatened, inevitable, incomplete, criminal, therapeutic and elective), trauma, ectopic pregnancy, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, abnormal deliveries (breech, prolapsed cord, limb presentation, and multiple births), bleeding during any trimester, complications of labor and delivery (antepartum hemorrhage, abruptio placenta, placenta previa, uterine rupture, uterine inversion, toxemia of pregnancy, pulmonary embolism and post-partum hemorrhage).

OB/GYN must obtain appropriate history related to event, (gravidity, parity, length of gestation, estimated date of delivery, prior C-sections, prior obstetrical or gynecological complications, bleeding, pain, vaginal discharge, LMP), Past Medical History, Medications, Drug Allergies, and Substance abuse.

It is smarter to have a Code Amber Alertag and not need it, than to need it and have one.

The elderly may have an increased number of pre-existing conditions that are likely to influence the patient's response to trauma.

In North America, one out of 5 trauma victims had one or more pre-existing medical conditions (PEMCs) which were more prevalent with advancing age. Moreover, these conditions adversely influenced treatment and recovery outcomes and as the numbers of PEMCs rose, the mortality increased. Furthermore, the effect of PEMCs on death was most marked in those patients who had a mild injury. Mortality doubled in the severely injured younger patients with the presence of a PEMC.

It is smarter to have a Code Amber Alertag and not need it, than to need it and have one.