Harmonex, a group of pediatric psychiatry clinics in Alabama, recently began using the smart card technology of On Track Innovations (OTI).

And just last week, Puerto Rico's department of health announced that the island's Medicaid programme will employ technology from Axalto, a company that provides microprocessor cards to various industries.

OTI develops and markets its own technology that evolves around microprocessor cards equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, which allow readers to access information stored in the card wirelessly, without contacting it physically.

To tailor the cards for use in healthcare, an Atlanta firm called J4 MediSmart has developed software specific to the needs of patients, physicians, and administrative staff in private offices and hospitals. Patients carry their own Medismart card, which can store identification, medical records, benefits, and other information that doctors require to make accurate diagnoses and treatment decisions.

"All your personal info is personally stored on the chip, so you do not need to fill in forms. All the info is transferred electronically," OTI's president, Ohed Bashan, told Health-IT World News. "It can be a lifesaving device in the case of an emergency, because the card can give paramedics important health information."

In integrating the needs of Harmonex, Medismart has helped to develop the outpatient mental health service's clinical technology platform ClinCom.

The platform provides Harmonex clinics not only with a solution for managing information, but also with a practice management application and Web-based communication tools.

"We believe firmly in modernising the overall clinical environment with the help of this type of technology," says William A. Handal, chief operating officer at Harmonex. "Going forward, we are committed to introducing and developing new technology that will give our patients, physicians, and staff the ability to receive and provide the highest level of care."

Unlike OTI's technology, Axalto's Cryptoflex smart cards require actual contact with the reader, which can access data stored in the card's embedded chip.

Puerto Rico's department of health will be purchasing two million cards, after conducting a pilot study of 16 000 cards. Officials are investigating how the cards could help the health system's move toward electronic medical records.

HIPAA mandates that such electronic systems guarantee absolute privacy and security. With OTI's product, patients must authorise access to their information through a biometric system, such as fingerprint or voice identification.

And, readers are programmed to access only certain areas of information on the card. The Cryptoflex smart card contains security features that involve advanced cryptography.

"This solution provides you with something that is much more private than anything that is out there," Bashan says. "You have different firewalls and a reader that can only read the file that it is supposed to read."