This is a concept often discussed here, now commercialized by this company. Thoughts and comments on implementation and value?

www.zaptag.com

Implementation? For the military or other large agencies, easy. For the rest, purely do it yourself I would think.

Value? Great, for those of us who take daily meds to remain somewhat healty. I did the el cheap version, and had my important daily meds, plus bloodtype, imprinted on one of those red dogtags.

If too much info was on the Zaptag I would worry about security, should it be lost. Passworded? If you are "out of it," I have to wonder how the emergency folks would know get into if to retreive the info??? And if anyone can get into it, I would worry about having too much next of kin type info, just in case of capture by the bad guys...

You'd probably rather hear from a professional that would have to deal with these things, but FWIW:

I think the device by itself is fine, the key is standardization. If I was hauled into the ER and the folks there could walk over to a terminal, plug in the device, and have my entire medical history immediately in front of them, that would be great.

Without that sort of organization, I can imagine the scene:

"I wonder if this guy's allergic to this med..."

"Oh, look. He's got one of those medical USB thingies. Maybe there's something on there that will tell us."

"Yeah, let's see. Dang, the admin's got USB ports locked down on this machine"

"I think Lisa in accounting has a machine we can use"

"Ok, let's go down there"

"Alright, we can access it... Woops, it's password protected. See if you can rouse the guy long enough to get the password out of him"

"Yep, that password worked. What the... Window Media Player wants to know what app to use when this device is accessed."

"Let's just close that... Ah, here are some folders. Now where would the useful stuff be...."

etc., etc., etc.

For now I'll stick with my more-or-less traditional dogtag (spiffy engraved one) with my name, address, home and work #'s for next-of-kin, and my doctors name and phone.

I'm a little worried about the security issues invovled when I think about one of these being stolen.

Could someone check into a hospital, essentially steal my identity because they've stolen my tag (assuming they copied the info and returned the unit and the theft went unnoticed), and then I get a bill in the mail?

I get nutty about the information I keep on my home 'puter, and that's got firewalls, several doors and an alarm system between it and the outside world.

I cross shred all of my mail, even if it's only adressed to "Resident". <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Is it a case of paranoia due to the amount of "Identity Theft" commercials, reports and so on that I see? I don't know.

Value wise... Wow, it could be an extremely powerful and helpful tool in emergency situations. I'm torn.

I think something like this has been discussed before on here. I see a few potential problems:
1. Is the data sotred in a propritary format and if so can the app reading it run on anything? I made the mistake of putting a lot of data into a lot of software over the years only to have to retype data over again when a newer version of the software wouldn't import or read the files from the old version (examples are Microsoft Money, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Visio and a bunch of freeware/shareward apps). Does the app to read the data fit on the flash drive, can it run on anything its plugged into so when the Ambulance shows up and one of the EMT's pulls out their old laptop running Windows 98 or Macintoch OS 9 and the app only supports Windows XP. Can you import and export the data to other programs or is the data file readable by other software or do you have to hand key all the data into it.
2. What kind of security is on it to prevent someone from accessing personal information, what kind of personal information does it keep? How do you keep it updated?

Most of your questions are answered on the FAQS page. Basic personal and medical information is (always) unencrypted. Exactly what software is used to store/display this, I do not know. Should I ever get one of these things, I would limit the unencrypted information to basic contact information, blood type, allergies and contact information for my primary care physician. I would give him the password to any detailed medical records stored on the device.

So in other words, you'd limit the accessible information to what could be found on a traditional -style dogtag, only now you need a computer to read it?

USB driver by another name. Good idea. Have they hardened/waterproofed the casing? Next to the skin on humans is not exactly the best enviroment for electronics?

I don't see what's unique about this gadget. It appears to be just an ordinary USB thumbdrive, except (I assume) with some kind of software provided to facilitate entering and encrypting data (for those who need it - personally, I wouldn't).

[edit] I'm not saying I wouldn't encrypt the data, only that I wouldn't need additional software to do this. I'm already set up for encryption. [/edit]

So I would evaluate it as a USB thumbdrive, nothing more. 39.99 British pounds equals about $74 US dollars. For a 256Mb thumbdrive. This size thumbdrive sells for under $10 if you shop around.

The trick is the software. The data entry app wouldn't be hard to write, the fun part is getting the autorun to work. It's most likely just an autoplay exe that resides on the drive, like U3's embedded OS, but that bit of software is worth something. And that is tricky, trust me, I've had to read most of the USB protocals and rules. *shudders* I'm also trying to port some apps to the U3 protocal, it isn't much fun.

I'm not sure if it's worth that much, though I have to disagree with the degree you seem to feel that it is. While you might find flashdrives for less than 10 bucks, I wouldn't trust them with my data, I've personally watched two start to smoke in the past year. SanDisk, on the other hand, I've had several of them for several years (back to when we paid about a buck a meg for these things), and never had a problem with them. The SanDisk Cruizer 256 goes about $15-20 retail and that's not the waterproof version, nor is it preloaded with the U3 EOS. I'd pay about ten bucks a lisence for the software and the medical data service subscription that is implied, and about $15 for a waterproofed 128MB ("small" is a very relative term, that is still the size of a print dictionary) thumbdrive.

I also didn't see them mention that you need to have the security on the viewing computer turned down enough to have a USB autorun work. And USB 2.0 is where autoplay starts to be supported IIRC, assuming that the OS has a clue of what that funny, fuzzy tickle means. Assuming the EMS team has a laptop/tablet available, and that the ED bothers to look at it.

What I would do in SanDisk's shoes is provide a way to put the same data on the CASE, so a human can read it, that you can put on a medicalert tag. The real problem with the Cruizer is that the little, slimline caps slip off too easily- they should have gone with the big, bulky protective cap, which would give you the room you need.