Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

ICEDOT Medical ID Chips Help Track Players' Health on the Field

by Caleb Johnson on September 28, 2010 at 06:30 AM

ICEDOT chips
Earlier this season, the University of Oklahoma Sooners football team began wearing In Case of Emergency Dot (ICEDOT) chips during games. The small red disks, which clip onto a jersey, can securely store a patient's entire medical history, and give emergency workers immediate access to it via an eight-digit PIN.

Not only is it much faster to access digital records than paper records at the scene of an injury, but ICEDOT means that paramedics don't have to rely on a patient who could be in shock or, worse, unconscious to relay a medical history or gain consent. Rather, signing up for ICEDOT automatically gives a patient's consent to a paramedic accessing his or her medical records. Users purchase one-year subscriptions, and create two profiles: a limited public one, which is comprised of 160-characters and can be sent via text message to an emergency worker, and a private one. The latter can only be viewed by an approved emergency worker, who must pass a series of firewalls before gaining access to the information.

During their September 11th game against Florida State, no Oklahoma players were injured seriously enough to use the technology. However, defensive end Jeremy Beal told Fox News that the technology gave him peace of mind. "Every athlete likes to know that everything that can be done is being done," he said.

Tags: chip, college, CollegeFootball, football, health, medical, OklahomaSooners, security, sports, top

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular