Tac Drive USB Drive Review

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Written by JT McAvoy

Over the years there have been many different opinions on why to store and transport your personal medical data.  This does not seem to be as important to most people as it should.  Even a car accident in another city or state can leave medical professionals in the dark about information they may need to know about you.  Having this knowledge at their disposal may actually affect the outcome of your survival.  This is especially true if you are in a profession in which you find yourself in a different location all the time.

Just as there have been many opinions on why there are an equal number of ideas on how.  These include CD, DVD, on-line programs, hospital based programs, USB drives, RFID chips, and even information embedded in different style of I.D.  All of these are not without controversy (hippa laws etc.).  The one technology that we seem to be coming back to is the USB/Flash drive.  There are no moving parts, they can hold a whole lot of information, and with the increases in technology they are getting smaller in size.  

One of the companies that has decided to visit the USB/Flash drive technology is TAC Health LLC with their new TAC Drive.  They not only have the TAC Drive itself but also a free (yes free) basic online medical profile that is transfered to your TAC Drive but also a Premium profile (for $24.00 yearly) that increases the amount of medical information you have at your disposal.  The two of these combined are by far the most promising product like this on the market and is also NTOA approved.

The TAC Drive itself is small an noninvasive.  It is a roughly  the size of a military dog tag. There is a hole in the top of the drive and it comes with two chains.  This allows it to be worn on person (my preference) or attached to key rings or multiple other configurations.  It also comes in a variety of colors and has custom logo or information  that can be engraved on the blank side of the drive.  For just text information there is no additional charge, however for a custom logo there is a setup charge of $25 but this is waved on orders of 20 or more of the product.  Pretty standard stuff really but after this is where the TAC Drive gets interesting.

     The technical and application is where TAC Drive begins to set itself apart from the rest.    The TAC Drive has a storage capacity of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 GB.  It uses a USB 2.0 high speed flash drive that has a data read of 15-33 MB/s and transfer of 4-11 MB/s.  The drive uses the standard plug and play operation and is Mac OS x 10.4+ and Windows ready (this is Windows XP SP3, and Vista) ready.  The TAC drive has a data retention of around ten years and information can be used an erased somewhere between 5,000-10,000 times.  

    The TAC Drive also contains to data files.  The first is the medical profile, this is the profile of the owner.  There are two types of profiles, the first is the free basic profile that you get just from buying the TAC Drive.  The basic contains information such as name, sex, age, primary care doctor, medical procedures, medications, allergies, blood type, and emergency contact information etc.  The premium profile also has the added Immunization Tracker and Exposure Reporting system for hazardous work environments and multiple diseases or bodily fluids you may come in contact with.  The more import reason in my opinion for the premium membership is in the following example.   You are hurt in a different state and your TAC Drive is taken with you to the hospital.  Not unconscious you give the staff your drive and tell them stick it in the computer, suddenly the staff is stopped and is advised they have a policy that does not allow any “removable media” placed into their computer system.   Now how do you access your information?  If you have a premium membership this is not a problem, your information is backed up online and fully accessible from any internet connection.  Now keep in mind this is all dependent on the fact you are conscious and can guide them to the webpage or you are in and E.R. that is aware of the TAC Drive.  The latter is not likely just yet though as outside of the military the hospitals that I have asked about it were unaware of the TAC Drive, but were impressed with its capabilities.

The second type of data files is basic storage of information, this is just like any other USB/Flash drive on the market.  However there is an added bonus all files including the medical profile can be encrypted.  This is not your run of the mill encryption however, due to the fact it is dealing with sensitive medical information.  The TAC Drive sports a FIPS 140-2 file encryption with an AES 256-bit Algorithm (military grade) as well as secure file deletion.  In plain English its very very good.  I have to stress though it is not recommended to encrypt or lock your medical profile.  If you do and you are unconscious or forget then your information, all of it becomes inaccessible.

 
    The TAC Drive is very durable as well and will survive most environments and situations.  It has an operating temperature of 32-158 F, storage temp of -40 - 185 F, and will even survive temperatures as extreme as -109 - 270 F.  It can also be 60 minutes at 100 feet in the open ocean.  The TAC Drive has also been drop tested from 10 ft and survived 26 impacts, so needless to say it is rugged and tough.  This is also apparent when you look at the construction of the drive itself.  As this was designed for the military, fire, and law enforcement community I cannot imagine a situation that it would not survive.  Please see our video review on YoutubeHERE

    I used the words earlier that the TAC Drive is the most promising on the market.  I did this for a reason as it is not with out its limitations and has room for improvement.  Due to the weight of the frame that the USB sits in when the drive is “deployed”  it is extremely back heavy.  This means you have to exercise caution around the drive while it is sitting in the computer.  If you don’t then you risk breaking or breaking the computer USB port.  There is also no cover for the end of the actual drive itself, this allows dirt, debris, whatever to find its way into it.  A tiny spring attached cover would take care of this problem, however for now to just forcefully blow into it works just fine.

    There are also two things software wise that I would like to see, due to the fact it would be extremely useful for the community it was designed for.  First is a special TAC Drive that could hold more medical profiles (10-20 max) and a special profile for such.  If you are the medical officer for a given team or unit this could be extremely useful to keep on track of current information and allow you to change it at will.  Second in conjunction with the above it would be great if for an individual or more (as above) to be able to track (premium profile I would assume) things such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, O2 saturation, and body temperature.  This would be very useful to track trends in an individual during training, fire rehab, and active situations.  With even a 1 GB drive there is years worth of information that could be tracked.  

    Again while not big deals there is room for improvement and advancement.  Due to this fact I believe that for the price the TAC Drive is one of the best values on the market.  With a custom basic and premium medical profile that allows you to access your information from any internet connection it really sets itself apart.  People taking control of and transporting their own medical data and files is and ever growing and evolving market. If you are just conscious of having this information available to you or  are in the military, law enforcement, or other fields TAC Drive is defiantly recommended.  Having this information at your or other medical professionals finger tips could be lifesaving for you, so ask yourself how much is your piece of mind or quite possibly your life worth?  For more information please go to http://www.tacdrive.com