[LINK] Roxon revives smartcard plan

[Tom Worthington]

At 08:49 PM 17/06/2009, Stephen Wilson wrote:
>... Long before we have standardised e-health records, we could see benefits
>from the right sort of smartcard  ... hold a number of IDs/keys to 
>enable indexing of different
>records ...

Good point. But the systems will need to be standardised to the 
extent that they at accept the same smart card. Also this will not 
necessarily give the patent any more control, as when they go to a 
heath center the first thing which is likely to happen is that the 
staff will ask them for their card, at which point the patent has 
lost control of their records.

>... using something like a smartcard to access Personal Health 
>Records (PHR) over the Internet. ...

You can't use a smart card on it own to access the Internet: you have 
a smart card reader as well. Medicare gives away USB smart card 
readers to medical practitioners. But this might be a bit expensive 
and cumbersome for every citizen.

I wonder if anyone has made a credit card shaped unit with a USB 
connector on one edge? This could still have a magnetic stripe and a 
standard smart card interface. But when at home you could simply plug 
one end of the card into the USB port on your computer, without the 
need for any extra hardware, except perhaps a USB extension cable.

The Yubikey device Bob Edwards has been testing has many of these 
features: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/06/open-source-for-government-security.html>. 
This is a low cost USB keyfob security device. You don't need a smart 
card reader for it.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian National University