"Siemens and Mount Sinai have a common interest here," said Philip Binder, project manager for the effort at Siemens. Mount Sinai was looking for a way to make health information more portable without having to deal with the time and costs involved in developing an integrated infrastructure, he said. "So they presented this concept to us, which we found commercially appealing -- especially since this is our sweet spot," Binder said.

Siemens is already helping health care organizations in Europe develop similar networks, and it's looking to promote the use of such systems in the U.S., he said.