Anyone who’s travelled outside their native country—or even within their native country—has probably had this thought cross their mind: in the event of an illness or accident, will doctors or emergency medical personnel be able to get medical information they need? Details like allergies, medications, insurance information, and emergency contact details? Sure, travelers can carry this information with them in a notebook or other using other conventional means, but that increases exposure to identity theft or other mis-use of the information.
The new Traveler-ER USB drive is designed to meet these concerns, carrying a concise summary of a user’s medical history, emergency contact information, travel plans, insurance info, and more, all stored on a tiny, password-protected drive. The drive includes a Windows 2000/XP/Vista applications in which users can store their medical history, contact information, family medical history, travel itinerary, and more: the application then uses “a modern encryption algorithm” to protect the data so it’s only accessible via a password. Users can select different levels of protection—ranging from “all” to “none”—with intermediate levels allowing access to medical and contact information but not displaying a social security number. The device also comes with a decal to place on an ID card (like a passport or drivers’ license) to alert emergency personnel about the device in case a user is unconscious or non-responsive. The application can also print an emergency records report…although, of course, once the data hits paper, it’s not secure. The application can also store a non-encrypted backup profile on a home computer.
The Traveller-ER is available now for $29.95; the company hasn’t provided any other details like the overall capacity of the USB drive and whether it can be used for storing things other than medical records (like, say, photos, documents, or music). And, yes, the Traveller-ER Windows application is riddled with typos, but just think: that’s really not what doctors or emergency personnel will care about.
