Providing emergency, preauthorized access to medication information

1 . A system for providing emergency access to information regarding prescribed medications, said system comprising:

healthcare provider devices, at least some of which are associated with emergency providers, and each of which are associated with at least one authentication device;

patient devices, each of which are associated with at least one authentication device and a patient;

a patient prescription database subsystem comprising one or more servers and one or more databases comprising prescription information and authentication information associated with patient data for the patients, where at least some of said patient data is associated with authorization for emergency access, said one or more servers comprising software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

receive a request for emergency access from a requesting one of said healthcare provider devices associated with one of said emergency providers, said request for emergency access comprising authentication information for one of said patients received from the at least one authentication device associated with the requesting healthcare provider device;

verify said authentication information for said patient;

determine if said patient data for said patient includes an authorization for emergency access, and if so:

query said one or more databases to retrieve said prescription information associated with said patient data for said patient; and

transmit said prescription information retrieved from said one or more databases to said requesting healthcare provider device in a read-only format.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said authentication information comprises biometric information; and

said at least one authentication device associated with said healthcare provider devices is configured to collect said biometric information.

3 . The system of claim 2 wherein:

said biometric information comprise at least one fingerprint; and

said at least one authentication device associated with said healthcare provider devices comprises a fingerprint reader.

4 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said one or more servers comprise additional software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

receive, as part of said request for emergency access from said requesting one of said healthcare provider devices associated with said one of said emergency providers, authentication information for one of said healthcare providers received from the at least one authentication device associated with the requesting healthcare provider device;

verify said authentication information for said healthcare provider prior to querying said one or more databases to retrieve said prescription information associated with said patient data for said patient.

5 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said healthcare provider devices comprise smartphones; and

said patient devices comprise smartphones.

6 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said one or more servers comprise additional software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

deny access where said authentication information for said patient is not successfully verified; and

deny access where said patient data for said patient does not include the authorization for emergency access.

7 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said one or more servers comprise additional software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

query said one or more databases to retrieve said prescription information associated with said patient data for said patient over a predetermined lookback period.

8 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said prescription information comprises a list of mediations taken by each of the patients and patient-specific information for each of said medications.

9 . The system of claim 8 wherein: said patient-specific information comprises one of: side effect information, associated disease or disorder information, prescription status information, prescribing provider information, and dispensing pharmacy information.

10 . The system of claim 9 wherein: said patient-specific information comprises each of: side effect information, associated disease or disorder information, prescription status information, prescribing provider information, and dispensing pharmacy information.

11 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said prescription information comprises a list of mediations taken by the patient and images and/or descriptions for each of said medications.

12 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said one or more databases comprising emergency contact information associated with said patient data for the patients; and

said one or more servers comprise additional software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

where said authentication information for said patient is successfully verified and said patient data for said patient includes said authorization for emergency access, query said one or more databases to retrieve said emergency contact information for said patient.

13 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said one or more servers comprise additional software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

after querying said one or more databases to retrieve said emergency contact information for said patient, cause an electronic notification to be automatically generated and provided to said emergency contact information.

14 . The system of claim 1 wherein:

said one or more servers comprise additional software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

after querying said one or more databases to retrieve said emergency contact information for said patient, cause said emergency contact information to be provided to said requesting one of said healthcare provider devices.

15 . A system for providing emergency access to information regarding prescribed medications, said system comprising:

healthcare provider devices, at least some of which are associated with emergency providers, and each of which are associated with at least one authentication device configured to collect biometric information;

patient devices, each associated with a patient;

a patient prescription database subsystem comprising one or more servers and one or more databases comprising biometric information associated with patient data for the patients and prescription information comprising a list of mediations taken by each of the patients and patient-specific information for each of said medications, where at least some of said patient data is associated with preauthorization for emergency access, said one or more servers comprising software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

receive a request for emergency access from a requesting one of said healthcare provider devices associated with one of said emergency providers, said request for emergency access comprising authentication information for one of said patients received from the at least one authentication device associated with the requesting healthcare provider device;

verify said authentication information for said patient;

following successful verification of said authentication information, determine if said patient data for said patient includes the preauthorization for emergency access, and if so:

query said one or more databases to retrieve said prescription information associated with said patient data for said patient; and

transmit said prescription information retrieved from said one or more databases to said requesting healthcare provider device in a read-only format;

deny access where said authentication information for said patient is not successfully verified; and

deny access where said patient data for said patient does not include the preauthorization for emergency access.

16 . The system of claim 15 wherein:

said one or more servers comprise additional software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

query said one or more databases to retrieve said prescription information associated with said patient data for said patient over a predetermined lookback period.

17 . The system of claim 15 wherein:

said patient-specific information comprises one or more of: side effect information, associated disease or disorder information, prescription status information, prescribing provider information, and dispensing pharmacy information.

18 . The system of claim 15 wherein:

said prescription information comprises a list of mediations taken by the patient and images and/or descriptions for each of said medications.

19 . The system of claim 15 wherein:

said one or more databases comprising emergency contact information associated with said patient data for the patients; and

said one or more servers comprise additional software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

where said authentication information for said patient is successfully verified and said patient data for said patient includes said preauthorization for emergency access, query said one or more databases to retrieve said emergency contact information for said patient; and

after querying said one or more databases to retrieve said emergency contact information for said patient, at least one of:

cause an electronic notification to be automatically generated and provided to said emergency contact information; and

cause said emergency contact information to be provided to said requesting one of said healthcare provider devices.

20 . A system for providing emergency access to information regarding prescribed medications, said system comprising:

healthcare provider devices, at least some of which are associated with emergency providers, and each of which are associated with at least one authentication device;

patient devices, each of which is associated with a patient;

a patient prescription database subsystem comprising one or more servers and one or more databases comprising prescription information and authentication information associated with patient data for the patients, where at least some of said patient data is associated with a preauthorization for emergency access, said one or more servers comprising software instructions, which when executed, configure said one or more servers to:

receive a request for emergency access from a requesting one of said healthcare provider devices associated with one of said emergency providers, said request for emergency access comprising authentication information for one of said patients and one of said healthcare providers received from the at least one authentication device associated with the requesting healthcare provider device;

verify said authentication information for said patient and said healthcare provider;

following successful verification of said authentication information, determine if said patient data for said patient includes the preauthorization for emergency access, and if so:

query said one or more databases to retrieve said prescription information associated with said patient data for said patient; and

transmit said prescription information retrieved from said one or more databases to said requesting healthcare provider device in a read-only format.