Surgical patients carry records on wristband.

The complete medical records of patients having surgery soon may be as easy to check as their hospital identification bracelet. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, have developed a portable computer system that allows anesthesiologists and other staff members to access and update patient information anywhere in the hospital the, patient may be. Such technology allows not only instant access to information, but a reliable method to collect more data and to analyze it with greater ease, indicates anesthesiologist Gary R. Haynes.

The system stores information on a portable memory disk, the size of: a watch battery, that attaches to the patient's wrist identification band. A hardware interface links the disk to a lightweight handheld computer that anesthesiologists can carry in their pockets. Worn from the time patients enter the surgical unit until they leave postsurgical acute care, the interface lets the doctors upload new data or download existing information within seconds. Material transferred from the portable memory device to a conventional database when the patient is discharged can be analyzed later for quality assurance studies.

The portable network eventually could replace handwritten, paper-based patient charts, which can be hard to find, difficult to read, time-consuming to wade through, and inconvenient to access, especially if they are at the other side of the hospital when the anesthesiologist needs them...