When Foothills Regional Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Mike Anderson recently arrived at the scene of a car accident and found a person unconscious, he assessed the patient's condition and realizing he had little patient information, activated an iPhone to obtain necessary health data on the person's allergies and current medications. Since April, the Calgary Rural Primary Care Network (PCN) has conducted a pilot project using iPhones and unique software to provide secure access to patient data to physicians and other health providers outside of health facilities. At the Foothills Family Medical Centre, Dr. Tim Dowdall and the nine other family physicians volunteered to pilot and manage the iPhone initiative funded by the Primary Care Network. The iPhones have been modified to increase security of patient data with protocols that exceed those of banking machines and other secure networks. Also, even if an iPhone is lost or misplaced somewhere, no patient information resides in the phone. As well, a Patient Impact Assessment, a standard security review done by the Primary Care Network when new health technology was introduced, validates the company's security safeguards. The iPhones are linked with a state of the art software program that allows physicians and other designated health providers to pull information ...