Symbolism

Patients need to have access to their health data 24/7

Health data can help people make informed health decisions when things are going well (think prevention). Health data is even more critical when things are not going well (i.e., when you are sick).

Dave deBronkart and Regina Holliday understand this very well. Dave fought (and won!) a battle with kidney cancer. Regina's husband passed away last June from a missed kidney cancer diagnosis (by the time he received a diagnosis, it was too advanced for effective treatment).

Both Regina Holliday and Dave DeBronkart (better known as "e-Patient Dave") have become passionate advocates. They don't want you - or anyone you know or love - to suffer as a result of being unable to access your health data as you see fit.

To this end, the idea of using a USB or "thumb drive" as a symbol of patient access to health data - on demand - arose.

The USB drive is not meant to be a proposed technical solution to the extraordinarily complex problem of health data access

Heck, we realize that the data we want and need isn't anywhere near ready (assuming it's there at all) to be accessed on demand. The point is that we need access to our health data, for both preventive and emergency health purposes, now, not in 2013.