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Convenient cash + safety with VITAband … sweet!

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Whenever I need a pick-me-up at work, one of my favorite things to do is to surf around on our “Partner App Reviews” site. Before any HealthVault application can “go live,” our support team reviews the experience against a list of requirements. The documents from these sessions, which usually are full of cool screenshots, all get saved up on a web site for posterity. And these days, apps are coming in quickly enough that pretty much anytime I visit, there’s something new and cool.

That’s how I stumbled upon VITAband a few weeks ago. VITAband is first and foremost a physical product --- a light, flexible wristband that is meant to be used when running, biking, etc., when carrying a wallet is inconvenient or impossible. The wristband has two great features:

  1. An integrated Visa debit card with payWave wireless functionality, so you have cash to use at the 7-11 to get a Super Big Gulp.
  2. A toll-free phone number and unique identity code that can be used by EMTs to retrieve health information and contacts in case of an accident or health emergency.

You manage your cash account and emergency information on the VITAband website, which --- of course --- is connected to HealthVault. So as a user of the HealthVault emergency profile feature, I just click a button and copy all that information onto my VITAband. No muss, no fuss. SO COOL!

Once again, this is really the promise of HealthVault. Have all your data in one place, easily keep it up to date with connections to pharmacies, labs and clinics, and then use it wherever you need it. Not a bunch of random silos for me to remember, just one convenient, integrated system that I don’t have to think about.

Of course not everything is perfect. For instance, to update the wristband data I have to log into the VITAband site and click the “Import from HealthVault” button --- I really wish it would do that automatically for me. But we’re getting there, and I know the service will continue to improve over time.

The perfect accessory for ski season --- opening day at Crystal tomorrow!

Set up your emergency profile at HealthVault

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs024OX1Crg&feature=player_embedded]

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2011
    All that's left is to integrate GPS tracking, heartrate monitoring, and an mp3 player into it, and you have a jogger/biker/skier/walker/etc's best friend.

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2011
    Great concept, wish it had a watch option, but I guess the chip they send in the mail is all you really need, and that can probably be attached to the back of a watch, ipod/iphone, or slipped inside the battery cover on your phone etc.

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2011
    Preston, they actually are working on different form factors, including a RumbaTime watch, check it out here: www.rumbatime.com/.../vandam-go-lights-out.html ... love it! ---S