However, new Food and Drug Administration-backed research suggests an iPod Touch-based platform could make the tracking of medical countermeasures much simpler.
The study looked at a platform called the handheld automated notification for drugs and immunizations to determine whether information about medical countermeasures from an FDA database could be matched to the EHRs of individuals to whom they were dispensed. Investigators uploaded an application to an iPod Touch that used a card reader and barcode scanner to record information from a patient’s driver’s license. They then cross-referenced the driver’s license and patient information collected with appointment records for seasonal flu shots, including the location where the vaccine was administered, the type of vaccine and manufacturer information.
Researchers found that almost 90 percent of patients could be matched to their EHRs by checking medical countermeasure data against scans of licenses and collected patient information.
“This study demonstrated the feasibility of using a handheld device to collect patient information and accurately link individuals to their health record in an enrollment database,” the authors concluded. “This approach could facilitate ongoing national efforts to develop strategies to assess the safety of [medical countermeasures] dispensed in response to public health emergencies.”
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