Security/identity · 2008-12-04

Where should data live? (part two)

Yesterday I said “you might have reasons for choosing different hosts for information that has different levels of sensitivity [or] needs for high-availability access”. Today I happened to run across a company that makes a business out of this:

The DocuBank Emergency Card provides immediate access to your healthcare directives, any time, anywhere they are needed.

DocuBank provides access to the following critical documents: Living Will, Health Care Power of Attorney, HIPAA release, organ donation form, hospital visitation forms, burial instructions and more. DocuBank makes your healthcare directives work.

They give you a card for your wallet that acts as the “discovery service” to get to the documents, and you need to have authorization to see them: either they’re about you, or you’re a healthcare provider who has specially registered to get access to this type of information.

Poking around online, I also just learned about the Washington State Living Will Registry, which seems to function much the same except that it’s run by the state.

I’m glad there’s a choice of providers for healthcare directives in break-glass scenarios — and I’m also glad I don’t have to host such information myself on the computer under my desk. After all, I could never offer myself a service-level agreement that I’d find acceptable…