My vision is to make this technology available on a portable device called LifeKey that can save lives, improve the quality of medical care, and help to reduce the cost of medical treatment for our customers.
The healthcare industry is dependent on the paper medical record as its core information system for recording and sharing a patient’s medical information. The average patient has 11.2 different medical records in existence. These numerous records are difficult to coordinate, and because a patient’s record is not easily portable it does not follow the patient from one provider to another. Paper records can only be in one place at a time, meaning that providers at different locations cannot easily access and review a patient’s record and medical history.
The lack of timely access to a patient’s medical history is both costly and dangerous, especially in the event of an emergency. The emergency room doctors depend on a patient’s medical history to treat the patient. This information is essential for diagnosis and treatment, to protect the safety of the patient, to limit testing redundancies, and to provide the highest level of care. Unfortunately, most of the time, an emergency room doctor must rely on the patient’s memory or get the information from a family member. Often that information is inaccurate and incomplete.
Fact: According to a November 19, 2003 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the inability to share medical information resulted in:
- Unnecessary deaths: 44,000 – 98,000 annually due to drug interactions
- Unnecessary testing: 20% of labs and x-rays
- Unnecessary hospital stays: 1 in 7
With all the publicity by the federal government about electronic medical records, one is lulled into thinking that a solution is just around the corner. Unfortunately, the goal is well beyond the technical capabilities of database applications using the technology that is currently available in the marketplace. Today, there are over 2,000 medical computer applications running on 5 different operating systems that simply can’t talk to one another. It has been said by a number of technical gurus that we are at least 20 years or more away from a solution that allows these systems to talk to one another.
As the CEO of a software company that works with the medical community, I had both the experience and background to take a fresh approach to this problem. The records that our software created were both portable, crossed over multiple operating computer platforms, and they didn’t need proprietary software to be viewed. Applying this same technology to a person’s medical records turns out to be the perfect solution to the current paper based healthcare crisis that we face today. It allows a person to carry their medical records in an electronic format that is immediately available to an emergency room doctor.
The result is a portable medical device called LifeKey and it is available today! It will provide the information that the emergency room doctors need to help save a patient’s life. It will reduce the possibility of medical errors, and will empower subscribers by making them more active partners in the management, communication, and maintenance of their healthcare.
 Our News
Sytec Health LLC releases First Universal Electronic Medical Record
Dateline: April 27, 2006 … Spring Lake, MI
Contact Name: Randy Van Ittersum, CEO
Contact Phone: 800-824-2365 or 616-847-5055
Web Address: http://www.mylifekey.com
SPRING LAKE, MI – April 27, 2006 - Sytec Health introduces the first electronic medical record that can be viewed in every ER without the need to install proprietary hardware or software. But, this is only half of the solution.
The other half is by using a portable USB Flash drive called LifeKey, a person can now carry their medical records with them at all times. In a medical emergency LifeKey provides critical information about a patient’s medical history which is vital to their treatment. This discovery promises to revolutionize the quality of care a patient receives in the ER.
According to Daniel L. West M.D., FACC of West Shore Cardiology in Muskegon, Michigan; “An all to frequent and potentially life threatening handicap is my inability to access critical health care information in a timely fashion. Details I need to make decisions within minutes can literally take days or weeks to obtain.” It is during these critical minutes that a doctor is handicapped by our paper based medical record system. LifeKey bridges the time gap and provides urgent care answers during this critical time period.
45,000 to 98,000 people die each year because of drug interactions, according to the Department of Health & Human Services. Studies have proven that having your medical records available in the early minutes of an emergency will dramatically improve the accuracy of the diagnosis, reduce medial treatment costs, and improve the overall quality of care that a patient receives.
Unlike other attempts to create portable medical records, LifeKey doesn’t require either the doctor or the patient to enter data into a computer program. Instead, the patient’s medical records are scanned into legal electronic duplicates of the original patient paper record. Using a patent pending technology, LifeKey then presents the records to a doctor as an electronic medical chart.
Although the idea of electronic medical records is high on the Bush administration’s agenda, physicians have been resistant to change because of the significant learning curve required to master a complicated new computer application. LifeKey overcomes this problem by presenting electronic records that have the look and feel of the familiar paper record.
LifeKey is offered as a subscription service. Neither the patient nor the doctor has to do any work other than send photocopies of the records to Sytec Health. Sytec Health, the parent company for LifeKey, does all the document input and maintains and updates the patient’s records. LifeKey is available for $197 and can be purchased at http://www.mylifekey.com.
For more information contact:
Randy Van Ittersum, CEO
Sytec Health LLC
18286 W. Spring Lake Rd.
Spring Lake, MI 49456
Phone: 800-824-2365
Web Address: http://www.mylifekey.co |
