Medical Memory Card

Beginning this fall, Blue Cross subscribers in Columbia, Md., may be able to carry copies of their entire medical histories--X rays, ECGs, vaccination records and all--in their hip pockets. Up to 800 pages of such information, including a digitized personal photograph and explanation of insurance coverage, will fit on a credit card-size "LifeCard." Last week Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Maryland announced plans to introduce the laser-encoded card in Columbia and, if all goes well, distribute it throughout the state by 1986. Ultimately they hope to market the LifeCard to insurers around the country. Says Blue Cross Executive Thomas Sherlock: "This card could reduce the number of X rays you receive in your lifetime and give the hospital emergency room the data to make sure you get what you need in a hurry."

The medical memory card is in part the brainchild of Computer Whiz Douglas Becker, 19, of Baltimore, who approached Blue Cross after reading about laser cards in computer magazines. Like the videodisk and compact audio disk, the laser card, which was developed by Drexler Technology Corp. of Mountain View, Calif., depends on laser optic technology, in which a low-power laser beam is used both to burn digital information onto the card and to "read" that information by scanning the surface. Says Becker: "This is a new application for an older mousetrap."

For starters, subscribers and their doctors will fill out detailed medical questionnaires. Either the insurer or a medical facility will then encode the data onto the cards, using a personal computer and a special "read/write" laser device, which Blue Cross hopes to make available to doctors and hospitals for about $1,000. Physicians later use the same equipment to retrieve X rays and other data and record new information. Says Sherlock: "LifeCard will save time, it will save money and, more important, it will save lives."