The medical industry is probably numero uno with respect to the degree of data explosion that industries are grappling with – massive volumes of data are generated for millions of patients each day via lab tests, x-rays, scans, patient history etc., and have to be stored permanently as part of hospital records. When it comes to portability of this data, modern technology comes to the rescue. But even with hospitals offering patient information over portable electronic media, the responsibility of ensuring that this information is always in the right hands is a big one.

smartTOUCH Medical, Inc., a subsidiary of bioMETRX, Inc., has announced that its latest offering in this area, the smartSTIK-MD will be released in 2007. At its simplest layer, the smartSTIK-MD is a USB storage device for medical data. But the difference is that it's designed specifically with security in mind – the data can be accessed only with proper patient authorization. Though the device behaves as normal USB storage, its data can be accessed each time on a computer only after the patient has swiped his finger on it. The fingerscan ensures that the patient himself has authorized access to his health records. The detailed workings of the device and pricing information are not yet available.

The idea sounds innovative. And its survival solely depends on whether it can warm the hearts of the hard-to-impress medical fraternity.

Via Medgadget.