Patients who worry about being given the wrong drugs or surgery will like a new system from Sharp of Japan (US 2003/55686). As a patient checks into hospital, they are given a smart card that contains a unique ID code, and a simple pocket-sized device, like a cut-down PDA, that communicates wirelessly with the hospital’s central computer system.
Slotting the smart card into the mobile device transmits the patient’s ID code to the hospital system, which then returns encrypted medical records that can be decoded and read on the gadget’s screen. The patient can show their device to a…
