OU considering medical alert stickers

The OU Board of Regents on Wednesday authorized the university to enter into a tentative agreement — a memorandum of understanding — with the Tulsa company DocVia LLC, which will provide the medical alert service.

The encoded sticker would provide emergency medical personnel with information such as the person’s medications, allergies, physician, preferred hospital and any pertinent medical conditions. OU President David Boren said the state of Oklahoma already uses the system for its employees.

Anil Gollahalli, OU’s legal counsel, said after the meeting that university officials hope to have the stickers available by the fall semester, and Boren said the system could be expanded, eventually, to include encoded information in the uniforms of student athletes.

Gollahalli said according to the agreements, DocVia will provide stickers free of charge to OU faculty and staff. The university will pay the company $3 for each student who chooses to participate, and employees could pay $3 per sticker for their dependents.