Two R.I.-based companies help EMTs get fast access to
your medical needs

06/24/2002 08:22 AM
By Patricia Resende

With the touch of a cell phone button, an emergency medical technician will know a patient's blood type, allergies and whether the patient has a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) order.

Two Rhode Island-based companies have partnered to give medical professionals a way to get patient information and send family and friends an alert by combining integrated voice response (IVR) technology with an online database of patient records.

Collaboration Catalyst (C2) in North Kingstown, R.I., has partnered with Online-Registries Inc. of Newport to incorporate C2's Digital Enzyme technology with Online-Registries' database.

Jim McGwin, president of C2, said the partnership would allow a person - like his friend who is afraid that he will pass out while hiking by himself - to provide an EMT with his medical and emergency contact information.

Digital Enzyme monitors critical systems, machines, sensors and other sources of information, generating alerts to specific people and allowing various people to collaborate on a solution.

"Essentially the one device he takes with him is his cell phone," said McGwin about his friend. "He's afraid to pass out somewhere and is afraid no one will have information about him."

In that case the EMT would dial the emergency contact person on the patient's cell phone. The EMT will re-
spond to prompts from the IVR such as where the patient is being transported or what is the condition of the patient.

The IVR would say for example, "Press one for serious injury; two for minor injury."

Digital Enzyme then takes that information and sends alerts to the various Online-Registries Web sites, giving family and friends a way to get information on the patient instantly.

Digital Enzyme will also send a message to a primary care physician's e-mail, pager, cell phone or PDA. The message would contain "transferred to XYZ hospital" and the URL of the Online-Registries Web page with the patient's information.

"The focus of the organization is on the supply chain market primarily," McGwin said, "but we have applied for patents in several markets including medical and health care."

David Stern, founder of Online-Registries, which operates kidrecords.com, med-records.com, senior-records.com and medproxy.com, says the two companies are still working out the licensing fees and cost to subscribers.

"We are chugging ahead," Stern said. "Are we talking weeks? No, months probably."

Robert Thompson, chief operating officer and the "brainchild" behind the partnership, said Online-Registries will first pilot the program with medproxy.com before moving on to the other sites.

"When you are talking about new technology and putting it into a manageable forum - we'll do it one at a time," Thompson said.