NeoTrax launches medical data site

Monday, March 08, 1999

By Ed Frauenheim
Business Writer

PLEASANTON -- You're traveling in France when a baguette truck runs you down, knocks you unconscious and sends you to the emergency room.

Your medical bracelet tells doctors there you have diabetes, but they don't know your blood type or whether you take insulin.

Now they can find out with a click of a mouse.

The Pleasanton firm NeoTrax has launched a Web site, PersonalMD.com, allowing people to store vital health data that emergency room physicians can get to via the Internet or fax machine.

Dr. William LeRoy Heinrichs, a professor emeritus at Stanford University School of Medicine and an adviser to NeoTrax, says the free Web service fills an important gap when it comes to caring for unfamiliar patients. Besides data on blood type and insulin use, the site can hold information on a person's medications. That knowledge can prevent a doctor from prescribing a drug that creates a harmful mix in the body, and it's more than someone can wear on their wrist, Heinrichs said.

"You can't list all this stuff on a little bracelet," he said.

Here's how the service, PersonalMD-ER, works: you type in your health conditions, allergies, medications and other information at the Website. After verifying your identity, NeoTrax sends you a wallet-size card with a special code. The company says emergency medical personnel throughout the Western world are trained to look for health information such as the card, which will lead them to your personal file.

PersonalMD.com also provides health news tailored to visitors' interests, information on a variety of drugs and ailments, chat rooms and occasional Web-cast seminars by physicians such as Heinrichs.

Several health-related Websites have sprung up in recent years. They include mylifepath.com sponsored by Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente's KP.org. The Kaiser site allows members of the giant health maintenance organization to schedule appointments and get answers to medical questions.

Privacy advocates fear that electronic health data could fall into the wrong hands. NeoTrax plans to sell data from its Website to pharmaceutical firms and others interested in health market research, but it won't release any information about individual visitors, said David Chazin, vice president of marketing.

Thanks to encryption and other precautions, "Even our own employees don't have access to that data," Tipirneni said.

Privacy concerns also explain why visitors to PersonalMD.com must have a recent Internet browser program.

NeoTrax requires Netscape Navigator 4.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, or later editions. Those programs can be downloaded for free from the Internet.

With older browsers, Tipirneni said, "We would no longer be able to guarantee that the transactions would be secure."

He added that the company, which also provides software consulting services, will rely mostly on ads to make PersonalMD.com profitable.

Founded in Jan. 1998 by four high-tech veterans, the company has 25 employees and plans to double in size within nine months.

Eventually, PersonalMD.com could ease health crises for more than just accident victims. The site plans a service that could notify a patient's family or friends in the event of an emergency.

© 1999 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers

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