Batteries Not Included: Accessing Vital Medical History
by Gregory L. Adams, BS, NREMT-P
mains an effective tool in medicine today. There are many tools in medicine that sim- ply work and do not require much modifica- tion to continue to be effective. In 1953, Dr. Marion Collins, a surgeon and a young father, experienced something that no parent should: watching his child in a life and death struggle. This struggle was caused by an unexpected side effect from a scratch skin test. Can you imagine someone you love and cherish lying unconscious in a hospital bed, not knowing whether they will live or die? Fortunately for Dr. Collins, his daughter Linda recovered after three long days, but the entire family knew there was potential for the crisis to reoccur if Linda were unable to communicate her al- lergy information to the next emergency staff that cared for her.
With the health and protection of his daughter in mind, Dr. Collins set out to find a way to protect young Linda from experiencing a similar situation. Under his guidance and direction, MedicAlert Foundation was estab-
In EMS today, we regularly see amazing tools and technologies introduced to benefit patient care. Even with all the new tools, we still depend on the blood pressure cuff, which was introduced to US physicians in 1901, as well as the stethoscope invented in 1816. Both of these tools serve a valuable purpose in our day-to-day patient care. The informa- tion gleaned from the use of each device is quite important to our decision making process while providing treatment. Over the last 30 years there have been attempts to im- prove these tools using modern technology, only to discover that a trained ear, a good stethoscope, and a manual BP cuff still pro- vides a quality reading; proving that each re-
Remember that when some- one is wearing a MedicAlert ID, they are alerting care providers with vital information that may influence a treatment protocol.
40 EMS PRO Magazine
lished in 1956. This marked the introduction of the first emergency medical identification device and emergency medical information service. The key concept is that patients would wear a MedicAlert ID; a simple yet ef- fective idea. The MedicAlert ID consisted of a medal emblem worn around the wrist with some of the patient’s critical medical infor- mation engraved on the back. In Linda’s case, it was “ALLERGIC TO HORSE SERUM.” In ad- dition, the MedicAlert ID has the staff of As- clepius bordered with the words MEDIC and ALERT engraved on the front, along with a unique member ID number and phone num- ber to a live 24-hour emergency response center on the back. This information was crit- ical for emergency providers. Prehospital ser- vices did not exist at that time, so all treatment was performed in the emergency department or clinic. Since every clinic and hospital had a telephone, the access to pa- tient emergency medical information was quick and easy.
In 1953, Dr. Marion Collins, a surgeon and a
young father, experienced something that no parent should: watching his child in a life and death struggle.
More than 50 years later, well-trained paramedics work in the back of medically modified vehicles that are better equipped than many of the early emergency clinics, and there are several technological tools to assist paramedics with their duties. I cherish the memories of conversations with my partner during daily equipment checks in preparation for the day’s events, checking each battery operated device, such as the glucometer, car- diac monitor, and laryngoscope (to name a few). But what is interesting to me is that the telephone has remained a constant. Don’t get
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