I stumbled across this gizmo called "MedFlash" in both the NY Times and in a "tech" article in the Seatle Post Intelligencer. I'm pretty surprised to see it essentially being promoted in those papers, as they do, by simply repeating press releases.
You expect to see goofy stuff in the "Gah Gah About Technology" segments on TV news. But the big papers in NYC, Seatle and Washington?
There are MedFlash press releases about it being promoted and sold at Krogers and other national chains. Can't blame them I guess -- they sell stuff -- but you'd expect that they'd think about it a minute or at least read the fine print before lending their reputation to things like this.
And it doesn't take much effort to figure out just what it is. MedFlash is a USB flash drive in a nurse's uniform. (A joke. No slight to nurses is intended.)
The idea is that this would replace a MedicAlert bracelet to carry your emergency and other medical data and, as they say on their website, "life style" information that would be useful to emergency medical personnel.
On the surface it doesn't seem like a bad idea. But just a tiny glimpse below the surface and you have to either start laughing, crying or wondering just what it is that these folks are up to.
"Because it gives us acurate information in a flash."
The MedFlash promo video on YouTube:
Here it is on Fox News:
