|
|
|
      |
 Home > Lancaster MRC Offer - Health PassportDear MRC Leaders and Members: The Lancaster (PA) MRC has offered to share a valuable resource with all of us—an internet-based "Health Passport." The document you create using this service is a simple, convenient tool to assure that critical information about your own health history is available to you or your treatment provider during your response. They will share this at no cost and for immediate confidential use by MRC volunteers all over the country. The Health Passport is available at www.mrcpassport.org. This shows another great strength of the MRC program—MRC units around the country offering to help each other by sharing knowledge and resources. The idea for this system grew from their experience working at ground zero after the 9/11 attacks, where they found that volunteers and responders often underestimated the potential risks and stresses involved when working in the aftermath of disaster. They also found that some responders were not able to provide basic medical histories or necessary health information to those treating them. Over the past few years, the Lancaster MRC has developed the Health Passport through a partnership with InnerLink (a company active in volunteer efforts in their community). Realizing that the Health Passport has significant value to others beyond their MRC unit, they recently consulted the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to ensure that they had the necessary expertise, experience, and data handling capacity to ensure the system could handle the anticipated additional load. To utilize this service, assemble comprehensive information on your health before you deploy prior to activation. Then create your Health Passport by filling out a series of short forms online. If you have a chronic condition, you may also want to include scanned copies of documents such as actual ECG reports or other studies. Your information is then available online (confidential and password protected) and may be shared with your family and medical provider, if you chose. It is recommended that you take along a hard copy when you deploy, as well as save the record on portable media such as a floppy disc or USB thumb drive. The leaders of the Lancaster MRC caution that only those who are fit themselves should respond, so as not to complicate the response by becoming victims. And for those who do deploy, they strongly recommend signing up for a Health Passport in order to have 24/7 access to their health and contact information in the event they become sick, injured, or isolated. Please join me in using this service, and in thanking the Lancaster MRC for their contribution and dedication to the MRC community.
CDR Rob Tosatto Last Updated on 5/15/2006 |
     |