Do you mean a USB drive?

Laptops are becoming more common in ambulances, and ERs have computers, of course. But I'd be a bit hesitant to stick an unknown USB drive into any computer I was accountable for.

However, I could see it being very handy a bit further down the line of medical care, when traveling to faraway lands, or in a disaster, where the commonly used means of access to your medical records by fax, etc., may not be available, or after the records themselves were destroyed in a disaster.

Here's what I really want to know about you in an emergency, which I think is likely to be fairly universal in American EMS and ER systems:

Demographics:
Your full, legal name, and any others you may be known by,
Your age,
Your sex (you might be surprised),
Your permanent home mailing address,
Your home telephone number,
Your date of birth,
Your social security number,
Your insurance carriers and policy numbers (we don't care if you don't have any. We will treat you EXACTLY the same, regardless);
Full emergency contact information for your next of kin.

Medical history:
Any known drug allergies,
Any current or chronic medical conditions or diseases,
Any prescription, OTC, or herbal medicines you currently or regularly take,
Any past hospitalizations, surgeries, or major illnesses,
The full name (with spelling) and contact information of your treating physicians.

The best, most reliable way to present Rx information is to provide the most recent little paper tag most pharmacies give customers, containing the drug name, dosage, and prescribing MD. OTC and herbal medication is also an important part of your history. The Rx bottles themselves work, too. Pills moved to those little daily dose containers are useless to us.

Having all of the other information printed out on a dated paper, in summary form, is a blessing to us, and helps us help you, especially if you have a complex medical history. Your actual physical ID card (driver license, etc) and insurance cards is something we'd like to have, too.

About calling an ambulance:

If you need us, don't wait, especially if you suspect a heart attack or stroke.

If you think you will get seen sooner if you arrive by ambulance, you won't. You will likely get a bed sooner, but not a doctor. If you are suspected by the nurses of "ambulance abuse," your wait may be very long, indeed.

The ambulance is not a taxi. You may not get to choose your hospital. That depends on your condition as determined by the paramedic, hospital status at the moment (neuro coverage, cardiac services, ICU beds, ER patient load, etc.), and the current availability of ambulances.

Your loved one may not be allowed to ride in back with you. If you are allowed to ride up front, please don't chat with the driver; he's busy driving smoothly and safely, monitoring radios, and keeping an eye on what I'm doing in back. Also, we use our lights and sirens to get to the hospital far less often than you might expect, and far less often than we do to initially get to the patient.

Is your address clearly and visibly posted on your residence, preferably with large, reflective numbers?

If there's car parked out front, turning on its hazard flashers helps us find you.

For heaven's sake, please put your pets in another room, turn on the lights inside and outside, and turn off the TV before the ambulance gets there.

Jeff