At an Alliance for Health Reform briefing on Health Information Technology and Its Future (we blogged about it here) earlier this summer, an audience member asked why can’t we have access to electronic health records the same way banks have ATM cards? ATMs allowed banks to cut costs and improve service, so why can’t it work for health records?

Community Health Network, based in Indianapolis, thinks it can. On Wednesday they launched myCommunity, a new service that offers participating patients credit-card-sized myCommunity health records and a mobile eCommunity network, according to the Indianapolis Star. Using the same technology that's in the express check-in kiosks at airports, the myCommunity cards can be swiped at kiosks in hospitals to instantaneously provide doctors with information about a patient’s allergies, medications, past medical history, insurance, and emergency contacts.

Community Health Network would like to see paperwork eliminated from the check-in process—but that’s not the only goal. MyCommunity is also designed to provide “coordination of care and one-stop shopping for all the [consumer’s] needs,” according to Dan Rench, vice president of e-Business for Community Health Network. The program will allow participating patients to refill prescriptions online, manage personal health records, update family members on the status of a loved one, receive health reminders on a mobile phone, and consult online with a nurse. The program also has the potential to improve patient safety by making sure the relevant health information is readily accessible to both patients and doctors.

ATM cards made banking more efficient; express check-in kiosks made flying more efficient; and online “ask-an-expert” sites (usually) made troubleshooting a computer more efficient. Can similar technologies work for medicine? We have high hopes, but it is worth noting that Community Health Network is a more integrated health system than your average city hospital (according to one measure, it ranks among the top 20 most integrated health networks in the country). What may work within one coordinated system may not work everywhere in our current system. But such programs demonstrate the potential of Health IT and should foster the development of electronic systems—complete with interoperability standards and privacy protections—across the country.