Apple In Talks With Insurers Now Relative to Healthkit? If So We’re Going The Other Way As Consumers Are Waking Up to the US Data Selling Epidemic Along With Profit Making Algorithms That Generate “Secret Consumer Scores” That Benefit Corporations - A Big Factor With Inequality Acceleration

As this article states though there’s no concrete evidence or documentation thus far of any meetings but I think I can safely say one thing here and that’s the fact that even Apple is not sure which direction they are going with all of this.  It’s kind of reminding me of the early days of Oracle when they sold software they didn’t have yet, and that’s done more often than what you think.  If software companies can get your excited on a “proof of concept” and develop an army of fans, well there’s the inspiration to actually write the code.  That’s the way it works out there sometimes, of course all about money so as not to waste time with something people won’t want.

When I read about the platform on what is there so far, there’s still a lot more to come obviously so to comment fully when it’s not even built yet is kind of hard for anyone.  We do know there’s a set of APIs to work with and that’s becoming more common place today and is making it’s way into healthcare.  As a matter of fact the folks at Zoeticx got a call and met with Apple a few weeks ago about integration with medical records.  Apple was gathering information about integration into electronic medical records during the meeting as I am sure they are doing with everyone with getting into the healthcare apps. 

Zoeticx Clarity Server - Middleware HIE Will Save Millions Maybe Billions With HIE And Has 3-6 Year ONC Compatible Time Line, Works Using APIs, Web Apps Where Nobody Has to Swap Out Their EHR…

I heard it was an interesting meeting and of course Apple has to determine how far the apps will go and what they can actually do as they would want to stay outside the of having to submit to the FDA as that would be a delay, a potential long one, so getting less complex consumer apps would be move one.  Allscripts met with Apple the next day. 

We already are aware that insurers are already buying up our credit card transaction data and that they record our voices at their call centers so um…yeah….let’s toss some more out there for some additional “secret scoring” to take place…not!  If by chance you have missed this, the World Privacy Forum did a great report on this topic and they too are concerned about all the data selling and “scoring” of consumers that goes on behind closed doors.  If Apple is talking to United, heck they can do code together with the huge number of technology subsidiaries United has, here’s a bunch and look at the SEC filings too.

World Privacy Forum Report - The Scoring of America: How Secret Consumer Scores Threaten Your Privacy and Your Future - One Big Element that Fuels the Continued Attack of Killer Algorithms & Demise of the Middle Class Creating Profiteering And/Or Denial of Access

So Apple, knock yourselves out with insurers as if that’s your direction with insurance companies, well most of us are not going there.  I have pretty much figured out too that the Mayo app already written for the platform sends your patient data over to Optum Labs as all the medical records go over there for analyzing and the ability to sell some analytics and make some money, while all the time competing with the FDA Sentinel program that does the same thing, except not for profit.  I got on to that as people were talking that once they use the Mayo Apple app, they couldn’t get their data out, it’s only a one way with you putting data in.  Here’s how the Optum Labs portion of this works with Boston Scientific being their first paying client to rummage through all the medical records to find data about their products.   McLaren and Dignity healthcare systems also kick in de-identified medical records to the Labs project. 

Boston Scientific Joins Optum (United Healthcare) Labs - Research for the Good With Profits Built In For Those Providing Medical Records And Data…

Again the data selling epidemic is so bad it’s hurting consumers and the economy as folks don’t know when to stop and determine when they do have enough information for intelligent decisions.  I said 3 years ago that data addiction was going to be the next upcoming 12 step program soon.  Truth of the matter is though unless we get license the data sellers and distributors, we are not going there with having to try and second guess some legal lengthy “privacy statement” either.  Not on the web, but in the “real world” folks are already starting to head for the exits to stay out of the radar and insurer radar is a big one that folks are making efforts to run from as we know what they do with their data and how we get “secretly scored” by them.  No trust there for a lot of it. 

Wearables Again, Consumers Are Not Going There Until We Get Some Transparency and Privacy Efforts As We Know There’s Data Being Collected But We Don’t Know Where It Goes…

Apple is no different than the rest of the folks out there in software world today as they too can’t quite figure out how people work, and you can see it clearly it with way too many broken software models.  I had a little Twitter chat with the CIO of the FCC, David Bray, and he agreed with me with needing more open source “scoring” algorithms as we don’t know if proprietary code is fair or not. 

“People Don’t Work That Way” A World of Broken Software Models That Don’t Align To the Human Side,Too Much Push At Times With Only A Proof of Concept That Fails in the Real World..

Yes indeed we are not algorithms out there and Google having same issue so hopefully nobody wants to toss more broken algorithms out there that few of us will want to use.  Due to money and how easy it is to sell data, there are some bad models being shoved down our throats too and I see it.  I’m not that smart but years ago when I wrote code do you think every model I created was a winner?  Of course not so with experience in that area I do my “sniffing” and it’s been pretty much on target for a number of years now.  I said 2 years ago to cut out some apps as it’s getting old.  As long as VCs keep financing that complex data selling business model so they can project a fast ROI, we’ll keep having more and more apps showing up along with their legal “privacy “ policies that few understand and are subject to change as a web page is updated.  BD 

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In addition to seeking partnerships with several different hospitals and health institutions for its HealthKit initiative, Apple is also speaking with major U.S. insurance companies like UnitedHealth and Humana.

In a report on rising medical costs and partnerships between insurance providers, corporate employers, and fitness device makers, Bloomberg suggests that Apple has spoken with insurance companies about HealthKit, but no specifics on the conversation were provided.

The focus of the piece, highlighting the insurance perks that companies can offer to employees with healthy habits, implies that Apple may be exploring partnerships that would possibly allow its collected data to be shared with insurance companies and other medical providers.

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/08/21/apple-healthkit-insurance-partnerships/

4medica Electronic Medical Records Creates First and Only Integrated Lab PHR Solution Licensed Under MMRGlobal Patent Portfolio

It’s been a while back but 4medica licensed the patent portfolio of MMRGlobal and you can read more at the back link below for additional details.  As I read this the patient or “personal representative” will be able to access all labs to be compliant with new HHS rules that have now require patients have access to their labs.  The PHR is available as a stand alone solution or can be used with 4medica’s Lab4 portal solution.  As an added note next week relative to MMRGlobal patents, the final decision with current patents with Quest, WebMD and Allscripts are to be decided.

4medica Electronic Medical Records Company Signs Agreement With MMRGlobal (MyMedicalRecord) To License Health IT Patents

The platform solution (link below) carries a patent in being the first of it’s kind in the industry with patient matching capabilities.  Again being a platform to work with EHRs and HIE systems one reference number would be able to span across various records to from  several “connected” sources to consolidate on one dashboard or screen for all relative patient information if they were seen or treated at different facilities and locations.

4medica Introduces Master Patient Index Engine Using Big Data Technologies and Algorithmic Processes In the Cloud

The company also has their own iEHR Software as a Service Platform in the cloud that can connect doctors to hospitals and works in the cloud and can be licensed and used  to connect with any medical records system.  The website also states that the iEHR platform will connect with other PHR services.  MyMedicalRecords.com states that prescription records and labs soon will be integrated into their PHR as well .  BD

“Yes, healthcare providers can purchase the individual clinical integration modules of Inpatient⁴, Lab⁴, Imaging⁴, Path⁴ and Meds⁴, or they can purchase the fully integrated iEHR platform.”

Press Release below:

4medica Releases First Fully Integrated Patented Patient Portal for Laboratory Compliance With HHS Rules

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Aug 13, 2014) - 4medica, a leading provider of a cloud clinical integration platform and portal solution, has created the only laboratory personal health record (PHR) solution licensed under the MyMedicalRecords HIT patent portfolio, owned by MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF). The 4medica solution is the first fully integrated personal health record solution for laboratories and other healthcare organizations that meet the requirements of the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) amended Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act and final rules.

The latest Amendment to the original 1988 CLIA regulations allow laboratories to give a patient, or his or her "personal representative," access to the patient's completed test reports on the patient's or patient's personal representative's request. 4medica is the only company of its kind offering a fully integrated laboratory personal health record (PHR) and patient portal solution which includes rights to MyMedicalRecords U.S. Patents.

"Access to laboratory results is a mandatory step in HHS' ongoing effort to make patients informed partners with healthcare providers," noted Oleg Bess, M.D., 4medica's CEO. "4medica has always been ahead of the curve, and as a result, is the country's only licensed PHR that establishes a three-way clinical 'conversation' by creating a cost-effective way for labs to provide results, an efficient way for patients to access them, and an efficacious way for physicians to stay in the loop and provide the best patient counsel and support."

The 4medica PHR offers several new features, including:

1. Fully certified and compliant for Meaningful Use Stage 2.

2. Patient-centric record provided by 4medica Big Data EMPI.

3. Ability to view clinical data from multiple physician practices.

4. Secure physician-to-patient and lab-to-patient messaging.

5. Patient forms available to collect required information for labs or physician practices.

6. Audit trail to monitor patients' activities within the PHR.

7. Family-based enrollment that allows the entire family to be set up under a single, family account.

8. Scanning of existing paper medical records, import images, and other forms from other physicians, hospitals, and labs into the PHR.

"This new version of the 4medica PHR was designed specifically to help laboratories meet government regulations and meaningful use requirements by supporting secure lab sharing of HIPAA-sensitive, private patient data," said Dr. Bess. It also provides a multitude of useful features to assure patient's engagement and continued usage.

Additionally, all 4medica clients and their patients receive protection under MMR's million dollar Cyber Liability Insurance Program. This includes protection from actual loss or damage caused in defending a violation of the expanded HIPAA regulations under HITECH. The underlying Cyber Liability policy is underwritten by an A-rated insurance company by A.M. Best and coverage extends to MMRGlobal's corporate clients and partners.

A standalone solution, 4medica PHR can be used with 4medica's Lab4 -- the industry's only lab portal solution with fully integrated EHR and PHR modules -- or with solutions from other connectivity vendors.

4medica's Integrated Electronic Health Record (4medica iEHR(R)), the industry's leading cloud SaaS clinical integration platform, helps healthcare organizations of diverse types create a seamless view of the patient care experience and drive EHR adoption. 4medica connects over 100 institutional facilities including hospitals, health systems, physicians, laboratories and radiology and pathology clinics; more than 30,000 physicians use its products.

About 4medica

4medica provides the industry's leading cloud SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) clinical integration platform, the 4medica Integrated Electronic Health Record (4medica iEHR(R)), to help healthcare organizations of diverse types create a seamless view of the patient care experience and drive EHR adoption. The intuitive iEHR platform design integrates with and builds upon disparate systems to facilitate interoperable data exchange across various care settings to promote care continuity. The cloud computing model is scalable, lower cost, maintenance-free, easy to use and deployable in a few months or less, eliminating large capital outlays or resource utilization. This is especially critical for small community and rural hospitals and physician heath organizations of all types and sizes striving to qualify for ARRA incentives and to demonstrate Meaningful Use. 4medica connects 100-plus institutional facilities including hospitals, health systems, physicians, laboratories and radiology and pathology clinics. More than 30,000 physicians use 4medica's products. For more information, visit http://www.4medica.com.

MMRGlobal Files 3rd Brief, Court Hearing Coming Up In A Couple Weeks Regarding Patent Infringements

The MMRGlobal patent disputes have been continuing for a couple of years now and I was curious to take a look and see if I could understand some of this a little better by looking at the court document filed.  I read through it and there’s several sections where the “terminology” is questioned and sometimes disputed.  This is a lot of work and a lot of legal time spent it appears to me.  Now to bring you up to date, some of the license cases have already been settled.  Below are a couple back links for the history on this case. 

MMRGlobal-A Day Federal Court Along With Quest Diagnostics, Jardogs, Allscripts and WebMD - Patent Testimony Information

MMRGlobal(MyMedicalRecords) Files Patent Infringement Against Allscripts Medical Records Relative To the Universal Health Record Technologies in Use

MMRGlobal has already settled with some of the other parties and here’s a couple examples at the links below.  As I understand the settlement values are confidential so I can’t offer any additional information there other than the fact that the cases settled.   A Marksman Hearing  is a pretrial hearing in  US District Court where a judge examines evidence from all parties relevant to key words in patent claims and this is where we are at here with the 3rd brief filing.  A Marksman Hearing is also known as a “Claim Construction Hearing” and this is where this lies at present. 

MMR Global and Cerner Reach Patent Agreement

Walgreens and MyMedicalRecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements

In reading the brief filed with the courts here we have a small company like MMRGlobal as a “David” figure going up against the Goliath’s if you will and this certainly makes some kind of statement today for the value of intellectual properties.  MMRGlobal’s original patents go back to 2005 with their initial filings.  I’m amazed at the “staying power” that the full investigation seems to have. 

From the other side of the coin you might ask too “why in the world are the big corporations spending all this time and money”?  Could not one of them just come in and offer to buy MMRGlobal and be done with all of this?  I don’t know what the costs of the legal fees are here nor could I even say that the idea of an offer might have even crossed anyone’s mind but you do begin to wonder.  Again after seeing the other two settlements being a done deal, why is the exact language that’s shown in the document some kind of a sticking point and is this yet another example of some dire complexities that drag things out further? 

I guess you could say too that if the patents are in fact legal and binding and in place, this stands to say something about the use of a full investigation to get to the bottom of what is valid intellectual property.  So in a couple weeks the next, and I believe final hearing with a judge will take place as a Marksman Hearing and then it’s the legal system’s case to make the final decision.  The legal brief cites Walgreens and others but when you get down to the bottom of the document below, it appears verbiage here is more specific to Allscripts and Quest. 

Anyway, again the time and effort big corporations are spending here seems to be intense and expensive.     So again, why doesn’t one of these companies just put themselves out their legal misery and make MMRGlobal a buy offer and end it all, or maybe that’s a tough decision call, as then the two could dispute the value of the intellectual property patents among themselves and debate about who could get to buy MMRGlobal as well:)   Stay tuned…..BD 

MMR - Coordinated Cases - Plaintiff_s Reply Claim Construction Brief

Doctors With Serious Sanctions Running Clinical Trials in the US And Sites Such As Healthgrades and Vitals Show No Sanctions at All So You Can Get Fooled Easily

This is a great in depth long article but well worth reading.  I included just a few paragraphs below and this is a big problem with doctors who have sanctions and either known or unknown to those look for backgrounds on them hire them for drug trials which have had some nightmare results.  As of last week too, you could even find the doctor from Dallas coming back from Africa with the Ebola infection listed as still practicing in Dallas and taking new patients. 

One thing to note as well that all sanctions are not the same either while one might be minor and one might very serious too and then we had the bogus sanctions against a doctor in Missouri with the medical board there who basically accused the doctor of doing a good job, go figure that one out.  Here’s where the VA hired a doctor that was banned in New York to practice in Florida.  Again I’m not diving in here but it is what it is and the charges in New York were serious. 

Top Doctor For Miami VA Healthcare System Lost Medical License in New York, Had Issues With Florida Board of Medicine, But On the Internet He Still Works and Takes New Patients in New York With Plenty of Insurers…

Look at this link below…according to the site the facility still has some fake spinal screws available:)

Operation Spinal Cap-Former Owner of Orthopedic Hospital Admits He Bribed California State Senator Calderon-Hospital Closed And Sold But Still Listed on HealthGrades

Again this is a good in depth read on a few doctors here and all the details that go with it.  Remember too that Healthgrades and Vitas get their records they publish from state boards, so tuck that thought away.  On the other hand just brace yourself for the exciting Sunshine report so you can see the $15 gift from a drug company a doctor may have received…lol.  This is how bad the news can be today as it’s as obnoxious as the Medicare Payment data base the media tossed out there, I would rather see data on bad guys doing trials rather than what umpteen doctors received from Medicare that were not out of the ordinary.  BD 

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At around 7 p.m. on February 28, 2003, a 66-year-old woman showed up at the Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley, a small Californian town not far from the Mexican border. She was seen by one of the doctors on duty in the emergency room that night, a man named Michael Berger. He learned that the woman, identified as “B.P.” in a later investigation, was in pain. A cramping sensation in her right thigh was radiating down her calf. Records show that she had a weak pulse in the same leg, and was short of breath. Her right foot felt numb.

Berger had options. He might have reviewed B.P.’s medical records, or tried to reach her primary care doctor to learn more about her history. He might have ordered an ultrasound or an x-ray. Either scan could have revealed the blockage in the artery in B.P.’s right leg. But Berger didn’t do those things. After consulting with a colleague, he sent B.P. home, with instructions to rest, drink plenty of fluids and take painkillers and blood-thinning meds. When she returned to the ER two days later, her leg was pale and cold—too far gone to save. She was flown to a larger hospital in San Diego, where surgeons removed the limb above the knee.

Berger’s career did not improve much afterwards. One day in 2004, he turned up for work impaired, a situation he blamed on taking sleeping pills. Other problems were noted when his employers asked a team of doctors to review his performance: failing to properly monitor patients after prescribing them dangerous drugs; prescribing excessive amounts of painkillers to his wife; a series of incidents while driving, which may have been related to his own drug use.

In 2008, the Medical Board of California put Berger on a seven-year probation. It was an unusually lengthy sanction, and it included limits on his ability to prescribe narcotics, and a requirement that he take regular blood tests to check for drug abuse. By then his career as an ER physician was effectively over: The California Emergency Physicians Medical Group, which employs ER doctors at Pioneers and dozens of other hospitals across the state, had handed him an indefinite suspension. Already his mid-60s, you might imagine that Berger would have taken these sanctions as a cue to slip into retirement.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, Berger secured a position at the helm of two high-stakes, high-tech cancer therapy trials. Dozens of patients with life-threatening cancers were entrusted to him. So was the responsibility for carrying out the complex procedures used to test the therapy. When the company involved—Immunovative Therapies—announced the first of these trials, its CEO enthused about the therapy’s potential to eliminate “every last” cancerous cell. In a photo accompanying the press release, members of the trial team stand in pristine white lab coats outside a building of concrete and tinted glass in Carlsbad, California, where the patients would later be treated. Next to the beaming CEO is Berger, wearing sandals and medical scrubs, a stethoscope slung over his shoulders.

https://medium.com/matter/why-are-dope-addicted-disgraced-doctors-running-our-drug-trials-aff6d20843bf

MyMedicalRecords, PHR In A Box Now Available at Drugstore.Com (Subsidiary of Walgreens)

If you read here at the Medical Quack then you might remember MMRGlobal not too long ago settled a patent dispute with Walgreens and part of the licensing agreement was that MyMedicalRecords PHR would be marketed and sold on Drugstore.Com , which Walgreens purchased a while back.  Read below what the contents of the box contains.  MMRGlobal is a valued sponsor at the Medical Quack.  In the meantime we have Walgreens suing CVS and Rite Aid for patent violations.  Also from a last news update, it appears a settlement may be in the works soon for MMRGlobal with Quest, Allscripts and WebMD, reflecting from the notes from the last day in court. 

Walgreens and MyMedicalRecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements

As I also understand the PHR will be available in retail stores soon as well.  BD 

From Drugstore.com:

Instant Access to Your Medical Records Whenever & Wherever You Need Them
Secure online access to your medical records & important documents 24/7 - from anywhere in the world. 

Includes:

• Activation Instructions
• Quick Start Guide
• User Guide
• 20 Authorization Stickers for Your Doctors
• 10 Emergency Health Record Access Cards

First Responders Can View Potentially Life-Saving Information in an Emergency

• Great for Families, Travelers, Caregivers, Pets, and Those with Chronic Conditions
• Safe, Secure, Private Online Access to your Medical Records for You and Your Entire Family
• Integrated Voice, Fax & Lifeline Telephone Number at No Additional Cost
• Checks for Adverse Reactions Between More Than 30,000 Drugs, Supplements & Foods
• Calendar Medication Reminders & Appointments
• Easily Renewable Online or In-Store

Perfect for:  Family medical history, birth certificates, passports, allergy information, powers of attorney, prescription records, kids immunization records, senior care records, insurance policies, wills & advance directives, lab reports, military service records, photos of family, pets, & personal property, and more!

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Activate account with PIN shown inside box.  The Quick Start Guide shows you hot to get started using your Personal Health Record.  Fill out the Emergency Wallet Stickers and Emergency Cards so doctors can access your records in a medical emergency.  Fill out the Authorization Stickers so your doctors can fax your medical records into your account.  Fill out the Request for Protected Health Information release form to submit to your providers and to obtain copies of your medical records and other personal health information.  The enclosed User Guide has everything you need to the most out of your account.

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http://www.drugstore.com/mymedicalrecords-personal-health-record-kit-12-month-free-concierge-service/qxp530332?catid=184044

MMRGlobal Signs Patent License With Leading EMR Systems Provider in Australia

If you have been following along here for a year or two there have been all kinds of developments related to MMRGlobal related patent infringements and some big names have settled such as Walgreens and Cerner.  We don’t get to know what they are as the settlemens are part of the agreements in most cases.  We do know that Drugstore.com which is owner by Walgreens will begin shortly selling MMRGlobal’s personal health record online and soon the PHR “in a box” will arrive on retail shelves.

Walgreens and MyMedicalRecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements

MMR Global and Cerner Reach Patent Agreement

In addition, Bob Lorsch met with the Prime Minister of Australia and I’m not sure if that is connected with the licensing or not but hey who doesn’t like to meet a prime minister.  You can see from the clip of the press release below that MMR patents go beyond just the US.

Claydata is a leading Health IT company based in Sydney, Australia.  In addition I see mention of 4medica medical records here as well and MMRGlobal and 4medica as I have written before are involved with some lab integration projects as well.  Now I guess the next news comes when when court is back in session in the US with some of the other major patent cases still in the works here.   BD

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LOS ANGELES, CA and SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - Jul 7, 2014) - MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF), through its wholly owned subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc. (collectively, "MMR"), and Claydata® today jointly announced the signing of a patent license agreement. Claydata, headed by CEO Joseph Gracé, M.D., is a leading Australian health information technology provider based in Sydney and provides its eHealth products and services to a number of healthcare organizations from over 800 referring doctors, many of which utilize Personal Health Record (PHR) services from Claydata that will fall under the license agreement. The agreement was signed following a week of meetings with the private sector and Australian officials, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott, in connection with a program designed to generate revenue in Australia through a private sector business cooperation initiative between the United States and Australia.

The program focuses on economics, sustainability, tourism, music & entertainment, food & wine, arts & culture, defense, political partnerships, healthcare, technology and other commercial opportunities. The meetings also focused on opportunities in the Trans-Pacific Partnership which includes 12 member countries, of which MMR owns relevant health IT patents and other intellectual property in seven of them, specifically, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Singapore.

The Claydata agreement calls for MMR to receive license fees based on a percentage of the gross sales of Claydata's products and services revenue. In exchange, Claydata benefits by being the first end user to license to MMR's portfolio of Personal Health Record and eHealth patents in Australia and New Zealand, which include but are not limited to Australian Patent Nos. 2006202057 and 2008202401, New Zealand Patent No. 566650, and U.S. Patent Nos. 8,117,045; 8,117,646; 8,121,855; 8,301,466; 8,321,240; 8,352,287; 8,352,288; 8,498,883; 8,626,532; 8,645,161 and 8,725,537. This allows Claydata to offer its services to customers with complete assurance that end users would not be infringing on MMR's patents.

http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/mmrglobal-ceo-bob-lorsch-meets-with-prime-minister-tony-abbott-signs-patent-license-otcqb-mmrf-1927084.htm

MMRGlobal-A Day Federal Court Along With Quest Diagnostics, Jardogs, Allscripts and WebMD - Patent Testimony Information

From reading the press release today this was a day in which both sides made their presentations relative to patent violations claimed by MMRGlobal, aka MyMedicalRecord.com.  MMR Global has already settled with Walgreens and you can read at the link below about the new PHR in a box to be sold on Drugstore.com and I believe in retail stores. 

PHR in A Box From MyMedicalRecords - Starter Kit Soon Available Via Major Retailers and Etailers

Below are the back links relative to the patent settlements with both Walgreens and Cerner.  Quest, Jardogs, Allscripts and WebMD (two divisions) are still being litigated and today’s court appearance was for just that, each side making their case. 

MMR Global and Cerner Reach Patent Agreement

Walgreens and MyMedicalRecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements

It mentioned Bob Lorsch, CEO of MMRGlobal talking about his own use of their company PHR, which goes back a few months and I just happened to have covered back then at the link below.  Nothing like having the CEO use his own products by all means.  In addition, Lorsch also talked about being a cancer survivor in 2005 and that was his motivation to created the PHR, MyMedicalRecords.com.   Some of the patent dates I know from what I have written before do go back to 2007 I know and perhaps even earlier, I’m not exactly sure. 

CEO Bob Lorsch of MyMedicalRecords.Com Uses His Company PHR Software With Stored Records And Communication Capabilities To Avoid Surgery And In Turn Gets The Proper Treatment At Hospital…

Recently the website for MyMedicalRecords.com has been updated to accommodate recent changes and expansion as the PHR in a box program begins. 

“The most recent NOA represents MMR's first Clinical Trials patent and includes 18 claims directed to methods and systems that provide for self-reporting being used to create Electronic Health Records for purposes including Clinical Trials. Additionally, MMR has received issued patents and has pending applications in 11 other countries or regional authorities of commercial interest including Australia, Canada, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Europe”

The case continues on August 19th before the judge unless of course all perhaps settle before that, but stay tuned.  BD

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LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 23, 2014) - MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF), through its wholly owned subsidiary MyMedicalRecords, Inc. (collectively, "MMR"), appeared Wednesday, June 18 in the United States District Court, Central District of California, where plaintiff MyMedicalRecords, Inc., and defendant(s) Quest Diagnostics, Inc., Empty Jar, LLC f/k/a Jardogs, LLC, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., WebMD Health Corp. and WebMD Health Services Group, appeared before the Honorable Otis D. Wright, II to provide both the plaintiff's and the defendants' tutorial of the technology at issue in the cases. MMR focused its technology tutorial on the invention including a demonstration of the technology as available on MyMedicalRecords.com. The tutorials were designed to assist the Court in understanding the nature and operation of the invention covered by the two MMR Personal Health Record patents at issue in the litigation, specifically, U.S. Patent Nos. 8,301,466 and 8,498,883. The tutorials were part of the Markman proceedings designed to interpret disputes in patent claim language. The Markman process also includes the filing of opening, opposition and reply claim construction briefs which will be the subject of a scheduled August 19th, 2014 Markman hearing before Judge Wright.

Attorneys for MMR made the presentation with MMR Chief Executive Officer and patent inventor Robert H. Lorsch. During the presentation, MMR showed the Court samples of its new MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record Kit which was created for sale at retail following the signing of patent license and retail sales agreements with retailers representing more than 40 million customers starting this summer. The Company also plans on announcing licensing and settlement agreements with PHR and EMR vendors prior to an upcoming new business trip to Australia next week.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1941713&highlight=

Nike Cuts Back on Wearables Which A Opens Discussion Relative To “How People Work” Current Models In Place Are Loaded With Vague Privacy Policies, How Much Data Gets Sold To Sustain the Model-And Is There A Desire For Consumers to Commit?

Here we go again on the discussions of wearables.  If you hang around the internet enough and read all the reports and press releases that are put out, you get the impression that gee everyone’s using one and you’ll be left out if you don’t.  Well everyone wants to make a sale.  I’m not saying there’s anything bad with choosing a wearable if “you” make the determination that the information given is a tool for you, but there’s good reasons out there that many don’t even want to explore it and privacy is a big factor.  Heck I even have the mHealth folks themselves agreeing with me on that as with all the devices out there, they do come with a business model to make money.  It’s not new and I think was pretty much put on the map with Fitbit with supporting revenue streams with selling some kind of data.

Others have done the same thing and with the current “data selling epidemic” along with the addictive “scoring” of consumers in the US, people resist as you really don’t have a clue with very complexly written privacy statements that are presented.  Most tell you they sell aggregated data and then also have a statement that tells you if the company is bought or acquired, hey anything could change and thus the privacy policy could be nullified.  So along with using a device as such you kind of need to stay on top of that too along with making a commitment to use the device and it’s mobile app.  Most all the products either have an app or a mobile responder of some type that takes your data and sends it somewhere.

I just said the other day that patient engagement goes beyond “go fix yourself” with an app.  Some have developed software now that involves others so you have a community.  That is nothing new but now you have software to track what goes on in the community.  Some people don’t like that either with sharing data in a community; however in a talk group of humans sharing with anonymity there’s no problem, so that tells me the business models with the wearables have issues. 

“Here’s an App, Now Go Fix Yourself” Why So Many Healthcare Apps Draw Little Attention From Consumers As This Is Not The “Full” Story on Patient Engagement…

Let me clarify this too as I am not talking about devices that doctors use such as a mobile EKG to help diagnose as that’s a different category in itself and software and devices like that that help are great.  This is more of a discussion along the lines of the consumer devices and software.  So for whatever reason Nike is changing course here it certainly send a message that there’s not enough money being made, as why else do folks make changes like this and thus so we circle back around to the business model and once again have ask ourselves “do people work like that”.  It’s not an easy nut to crack and has been around since software has.  We hear all this talk about intuitive apps and devices and that’s hard.  You get fooled all the time and I go back to when I wrote software.

I was not above getting fooled as it happens all the time with a proof of concept sounding really good, thinking people are just going to “love” having whatever information your queries put out there, and guess what, they don’t like it or they don’t care.  So for developers there’s an old saying out there of “eating your own dog food” and even then if you use your own products you can still get fooled as it may work for you but it might be too complex for someone else, or they just don’t like it. 

Marketing with wearables tells us today “we have to like it as the data is helpful”…well some do and some don’t and if you have to force this issue, then something’s wrong with the model.  Would I use a patch instead of taking a pill to dispense medication for one example, sure I’d give a try.  Now what if that patch had a sensor that sends the data somewhere for someone to monitor and bug me and end up at a wellness company owned by an insurance company, nope, give me a pill instead without the chip that goes down my digestive tract too  as I think I’m adult enough to take whatever medications I would need to help whatever condition I could have.  I’m also not adverse to reminders that would help me as well, but I don’t want that too blasted all over creation and I can just as easy enough set my own reminders with Outlook to do that and still enjoy my privacy, the phone does that real well and how I function today with reminders too so they are all in one place.   By doing such I would also be admitting to myself that hey I’m going to use a little technology to make me smarter and more efficient and I don’t need another app for that. 

10 Biggest Mobile Health Investments This Year Appear to Have Business Plans With Profits Contingent on Selling Data for Profit And VCs Seem To Like Funding Models As Such, Look At The Numbers…

Nothing much is going to really happen here until we lay out the privacy and give consumers information on where their data goes and more so on where it gets sold, profile data or entire history.  Just recently the World Health Organization presented a report on the “Scoring of citizens in the US” and it’s interesting as we lead the pack with the data addiction game and selling.  No where else in the world are people scored right and left with proprietary software that you have no clue on how it works and where the data goes, and who’s data is it really.  Here’s a good example below along with a link to the World Privacy report which you can also read below.

When you hear FICO say all they need is your name and address to score you from 0 to 500 on medication compliance, well for me it’s  time to get out of Dodge as I have no clue as to what data sources they are using.  When your data gets turned loose, how do you get scored by who, where and what other data sources get queried with it?

“Consumer scores are found in a wide array of “offline” arenas, including businesses, health care providers, financial institutions, law enforcement, retail stores, federal and state government, and many other locations. Some of the more social consumer scores may be online, but mostly consumer scores are not solely focused on just online activities.

Consumer scores in use today affect a consumer’s marketplace opportunities. Some of these opportunities are major (e.g., financial, employment, health,), some are minor (e.g., receiving a coupon, spam, or junk mail), and many are in between. Consumers are adversely affected by scores that are kept secret, and consumers are adversely affected when they do not have rights to correct scores.

Two Data Brokers Get Fined by the FTC For Non Compliance, One Gets Most All Of The Million Dollar Fine Reduced as They Could Not Afford To Pay By the Court, But If You Are A Consumer With Medical Bills You Go To Bankruptcy Court..

The worst part about the fines given by the FTC at the link above is that the one data broker could not pay a million dollar fine so they reduce it to $60,000.  Think about that as if a consumer had a million dollars in medical bills, they go to bankruptcy court.  This battle will go on and on until consumers have the flat out bottom line on who collects data and what kind and where it goes.  Also at the link above you can see where Google is doing a study to find out “how people work” and it’s kind of amusing to a degree after years of hiring thousands of people that they need a study and don’t have a clue and sure they have had success in building software that is intuitive which is fine but they have also had some dogs too over the years, so again it’s tough to always know what will work out there. 

This link too is relative as now you can see where Google is partnering with data brokers to follow you into the stores now to match up ads with sales which will never be an exact “science” if you want to call this “data dig” that.  My post on 100 Bottles of Beer does a good job explaining why you may have 80 bottles or it may be 200 but it will never be 100 in the real world.  I used to be a query monster and know exactly how data is manipulate at at times and how false values get marketed and sold and we end up with more cases of “The Grays”. 

Google Partnering With Data Brokers Acxiom And Others To Follow You Around While You Shop On a Test Project-Data Selling Data Businesses Benefit And Tech Companies Operate Off Shore Tax Havens-Do Google and Facebook Pay US Taxes on This Revenue?

Back on topic here though when it comes to wearables though, Apple could have a shot at it as they have tons of money and don’t have to succumb to a “data selling model” that we see out there and it’s no easy task for them either to figure out “how people work”. 

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the lack of privacy and the “data selling epidemic” along with the compulsive proprietary “consumer scoring” that is taking place in the US is having an impact on this market for sure.  Speaking for myself only, that’s exactly why I would even think of wearing one.  Now a take as simple pedometer that connects to a PHR where the data is for my use and measurement only and where I’m in control, different story as now I have a tool “for me” and not one that going to blast a data profile all over the place as folks trying to figure out “how people work” are just salivating all over the place to buy such data. 

I say leave it up to the official clinical studies and scientific folks to work on that, not the average Joe out there who thinks they can take data from any credible or non-credible source such as social networks to create the “Holy Grail” on behavior.  Anymore too you have to watch some of those studies a we read about some that cheat to make money there too.  I’m just looking at the entire big picture of why folks are not jumping out of their skins into the wearable business.  For those that use them and it helps, fine but on the other hand can you please have a little consideration for those who don’t buy in for privacy reasons? 

I’m not going to discount anyone who finds a tool that helps them, but I’m also a realist that understands marketing and business models too and the “selfie” move of hearing the same thing over and over with folks having to put their results on social networks is getting old as we flooded with such and people ignore it after a while and just kind of look and figure “there’s one of those selfie’s again” who thinks I care:)  Fact of the matter is and I’m speaking for myself and others may share this is that I’m too involved right now with my own data as I have email, logging on with my financials, etc. to have time to look at it anymore.  We are all busier today with using technology information sources and I tune out what I don’t see as something of value for me at the present time.  It gets to be noise. 

We are always going to have this quest to figure out how to make things work and sometimes the models just break no matter what you do.  Companies selling broken models that don’t have a large enough appeal sure feel it too and will jump through hoops to create perceptions that the model is not broken as they want to make money..augh..and so it goes.  So we come back around to the same question again “do people work that way” and what’s virtual values and the real world values.  Some mix and some don’t and we come back to “The Grays” again and ask ourselves what virtual values (i.e. data from devices here) intersect with the real world here and how do I balance it.  So in the meantime I have to figure this out and cut through the noise. 

You read about electronic medical records and doctors complaining there too, what’s up with their models you could ask?  You know when electronic medical records came out, I wrote one in the early days and really worked hard to make a tool for the doctors that would help “them”, but again the “data selling epidemic” here has encroached there as well.  Insurance companies want to make money selling their research on mining records, a shift away from the original FDA Sentinel program where all would “share for the good”, so here’s that battle ground as again it’s money and a few years ago the shift changed from being a doctor’s tool to being an insurance tool for payments.  The US has the absolute most complex system in the world in the way medical coding works and it plays out with electronic medical records and thus the software is geared for coding first and clinical second it appears anymore.  Larry Page at Google was a bit out of touch too with his recent comments on medical records.

Larry Page of Google Wants Anonymous Medical Records Available for All Researchers To Use, But What Would Be the Cost? Insurer Subsidiaries and Others are Already In the Game As Data Sellers To Provide Such..

Now we have hospitals and other medical entities trying to make use of the data from the wearables too and we come back to the same old thing again with where does my data go.  In order to participate with any of them I now have to submit to the device and the app to give them my data so it can be maybe combined with a program a hospital has that can maybe use the data in a constructive way?  Physicist Sean Gourley does a good job with this in this video below , we need algorithms but who’s are they and will I benefit. Larry Ellison also recently gave us a good warning too with being careful with artificial pieces of software that’s smarter than you.  He knows as code has been his business for years.

Larry Ellison, CEO Oracle, HCM Conference Keynote–”Be Careful About Virtual Relationships With Artificially Intelligent Pieces of Software That’s Smarter Than You“, It’s Really All About People”–Algo Duping and the Killer Algorithms Living Amongst Us…(Update) Video

Do I need to be a Techno Serf to benefit?  This is pretty much what we have built out there with the data selling epidemic and wearables have their part of the equation built in here too. BD

Algorithms That Exploit, Sean Gourley CEO of Quid, Physicist Extraordinaire Describes and Talks About How the World Is Being Ruled by Algorithms, Who’s Algos Are They, Am I Going To Benefit From Them, And Where Are The Good Algos?

Again until privacy is full addressed here and people know where their data goes, I think that’s still going to remain to be a huge stumbling block here with apps and wearable devices as people have a huge reason not to trust.  You look around, everywhere, it’s a data hunt for money, stock markets, no different and people will use data whether it’s ethical or non-ethical to make money.  So perhaps with Nike here the business model is opening up for questions.  You do have that other side of the coin too with people using the product but if the business model is broken on the money making side, why continue?  BD 

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Nick Statt of Cnet has a scoop: He’s reporting that Nike is laying off most of the people on its team responsible for the FuelBand fitness tracker. Instead of making its own hardware, the company will focus on fitness-related software henceforth.

This I do know: I’m sorry to see the FuelBand go away. Though it didn’t do anywhere near as much as a Fitbit or Jawbone Up, I loved Nike’s hardware design, with its straightforward display and a clasp that locked securely and doubled as a USB connector. (It’s one of the few wearables that doesn’t make you keep track of a stupid little charging dongle.) I was hoping to see it evolve further; Statt says an upcoming model was canceled, though the current FuelBand SE will stay on the market.

http://time.com/69009/fuelband/

Nuance Buys Accelarad Medical Image and Document Sharing Company and Rebrands To “Nuance PowerShare Network” for HIPAA Compliant Sharing Network For Doctors, Patients & Hospitals

Nuance is now officially in the medical image and document sharing business with their new acquisition.  It’s not the first and won’t be the last as here’s another that opened last year.  Features of course may not be identical but the main show here is to share medical images to avoid having duplicates done again for one and secondly the ability of physicians to share with each other as well as hospitals.

Radiology Society of North America Image Share Project Completes Phase One With Allowing Patients To Use and Store Medical Images in the Cloud–PHRs

As I read here the platform will integrate with current medical records systems and images are stored in the cloud, where else:)  Many medical records companies already have a document sharing module but this now incorporates the cloud and imaging which is a bit more complex.  As I read through here there’s a dicom viewer built in so no separate software for that for those MRI and CAT scan images. 

You need to become a member and I don’t know what the pricing is as I didn’t go that far.  In addition PHRs have been in the image sharing business for a while with HealthVault as one example that has a built in Dicom viewer.  That viewer comes in handy.  You can read the links about the PHR aspect below.

HealthVault Begins Storing Medical Images (Dicom) Using Windows Azure Cloud Services With Full Encryption

Microsoft HealthVault Connects to Astra Candelis Cloud Imaging Solutions–Take Your Ultra-Sound Images With You

Multi-Media Data Sharing Comes to HealthVault PHR–Store and Share Your Endoscopic Videos From Physicians

The big plus here is for the built in capability for physicians to be able to have the information within a medical record as when else are you wanting to review medical images, when you are looking at the patient records.  BD

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Nuance Communications has announced today the immediate availability of Nuance PowerShare™ Network, the industry’s largest cloud-based network for securely connecting physicians, patients, and others to share medical images and reports as simply as people exchange information using social networks.

“This nationwide network, one that is fully integrated into the EHR workflow and already connected to approximately half of all clinicians producing diagnostic imaging information, is a ground breaking solution that delivers immediate benefits at an unprecedented scale to our healthcare system.”

“The challenge of sharing images with interpretive reports is something we’ve heard about consistently from our customers and EHR partners, and we know Nuance PowerShare Network will overcome this major obstacle, helping physicians treat patients more efficiently and effectively,” said Peter Durlach, senior vice president of marketing and strategy, Nuance Communications. “This nationwide network, one that is fully integrated into the EHR workflow and already connected to approximately half of all clinicians producing diagnostic imaging information, is a ground breaking solution that delivers immediate benefits at an unprecedented scale to our healthcare system.”

 http://emrdailynews.com/2014/04/18/nuance-communications-acquires-accelarad-launches-nuance-powershare-network/#ixzz2zH5pYTXC

MyMedicalRecords - New Enhanced Website Offering 30 Day Trial Along With New Pricing And Feature Availability

Here’s a few words today that coincides with a post I made a few days ago relative to the PHR starter kit in a box coming to retail markets soon from MMRGlobal aka MyMedicalRecords.com.  The site needed an update to allow consumers to take advantage of ordering the starter kit on line.  In addition there are some new pricing break downs as well so you don’t have to pay more for what you may not need. 

PHR in A Box From MyMedicalRecords - Starter Kit Soon Available Via Major Retailers and Etailers

In addition soon to come will be the ability to share legal documents as well.  Unfortunately with healthcare in the state that it is in today leads to legal documents arising out of disputed care scenarios and if you happen to be in a dispute of any source you will be able to share documents with both doctors and lawyers from the same site, such a deal! 

I looked around a bit and signed on as if I didn’t have an account to begin with.  I do have an account and frankly I have more files on my dog than me but both of us are in there with our records:)  I went to the “best deal’ link and this is what comes up.  You can download and print a brochure here. 

If you are only needing storage and access for 2 people the cost if half of what it used to be and the same for more up to 10 family members.  Its probably worth a mention here too that the laws have changed a bit and now consumers will be able to get their own copies of their lab reports now and a PHR is good place to store them for sure. 

The new rule says they need to be available within 30 days and I’m sure most are going to do it via the web versus mailing on paper.  I just read the other day where Quest Diagnostics is ready with their system to provide consumers copies of their labs.  Labs have until October to comply so there might be some labs out there still working on their access programs. 

I do have to say this has been interesting following the company for the last year too with many turn of events relative to the various licensing and patent settlements.  CEO Bob Lorsch does use his own PHR program too and wrote about it not too long ago.  BD

CEO Bob Lorsch of Mymedicalrecords.Com Uses His Company PHR Software With Stored Records And Communication Capabilities To Avoid Surgery And In Turn Gets The Proper Treatment At Hospital…

MMRGlobal is a valued sponsor at the Medical Quack. 

https://www.mymedicalrecords.com/registration.html?method=staticPlanPage

PHR in A Box From MyMedicalRecords - Starter Kit Soon Available Via Major Retailers and Etailers

I have said many times that PHRs come in all different flavors and here’s a new one, a box.  In addition you can read about the manufacturers representative that will taking care of orders in actual stores versus an online purchase.  If you have been reading here along for the last couple of years I try to keep all updated when events and things happen and MMRGlobal is a sponsor of the Medical Quack with a few links on the site as well as the flipping book under my sponsor section. Not too long ago an agreement was reached with Walgreens and at that time it was announced that Drugstore.com, a subsidiary of Walgreens would be selling the PHR, MyMedicalRecords.com online.  With this latest announcement we are going a bit further than just one website.  Also in recent news MMRGlobal announced an patent property settlement with Cerner. 

Walgreens and Mymedicalrecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements

This is called a “starter kit” and the press release information also says that we can anticipate seeing quite a bit more advertising using co-op funding.  $29.95 is the price for a six month starter kit and along with the online record storage system itself, you can see in the image that there’s a few more items that come along with it to include stickers and cards.  Not too long ago, Bob Lorsch shared his own story on how having his records on file saved him a ton of anguish when he was sick and had to go to the hospital, so yes he does use his own software. 

CEO Bob Lorsch of Mymedicalrecords.Com Uses His Company PHR Software With Stored Records And Communication Capabilities To Avoid Surgery And In Turn Gets The Proper Treatment At Hospital…

In other recent MMRGlobal news it was announced last month it was also moving into the legal field with a patent allowance to provide sharing and storage of legal documents.  Much like the medical records sharing this will allow lawyers and clients to share their records back and forth securely. 

“MMR plans on marketing its legal online records services and licensing of the new patent when issued through its MyEsafeDepositBox brand which is already designed to provide secure online access to important legal, financial, insurance and other vital documents, including a family's personal health information.”

MyMedicalRecords already has a container called “MyESafeDepositBox” for storing legal documents so it makes sense to add the additional features of sharing legal documents as well and sometimes medical records information and legal document sharing and storage are both needed at the same time.  BD 

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MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record Kit Now On Sale at Drug Chains, Etailers & Retailers

LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 04/14/14 -- MyMedicalRecords, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of MMRGlobal, Inc., (OTCQB: MMRF) collectively ("MMR"), today announced the launch of its MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record Kit going on sale in Drug Chains, Etailers and Retailers nationwide. MMR already has agreements in place and orders to sell the kit starting this quarter through Etailers and retailers representing more than 30 million customers nationwide. The program will be supported by a national syndicated television advertising campaign and millions of dollars in retailer co-op advertising funds, which are part of the Company's agreements with retailers.

MMR also announced the appointment of Compass Express as a Manufacturer's Representative for selected accounts. Compass currently sells connected health and wellness, home automation, wearables, wireless devices and accessories, small appliances, sporting goods, toys, seasonal merchandise, textiles, and home improvement products to Amazon.com, Costco Wholesale, Target, Best Buy, Lowe's, Staples and numerous other national and regional retail chains.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1918211&highlight=

Qualcomm Life Reaches Agreement With Tunstall Healthcare in the UK To Utilize 2net Hub Platform to Connect and Store Medical Data in the Cloud From Devices..

Ok for all who want data from wearables and other mHealth apps and products, here’s a device and platform that will serve to gather all the information in the cloud.  Every time a new gadget comes out this will save having to build yet one  more communication platform.  When you watch the video you will see some examples of technologies you may have already seen or read about, Withings scale for one.  You also here some words from Kaiser Permanente give a short comment of support. 

From the website:

There are four gateways onto the 2net Platform’s data center:

1. A standalone FDA-listed external device – the 2net Hub*
2. An FDA-listed software module that connects mobile computing devices – 2net Mobile Core* 
3. Medical devices with an embedded cellular component
4. Service platform integration between the FDA-listed 2net Platform to customer and technology partner service platforms using application programming interfaces (APIs)

* The 2net Platform, 2net Hub and 2net Mobile Core are separately FDA listed as Class I MDDS (Medical Device and Data Systems) in the U.S., Class I MDD and CE Registered in Europe, and Class I in Canada. As MDDS devices, they are designed, developed and manufactured in accordance with a quality system compliant with ISO13485 standards, meaning it aligns with the quality requirements of U.S. and international regulatory agencies in the health care industry.

2net Mobile is a software module that enables mobile computing devices such as mobile phones and tablets to serve as gateways to the cloud-based 2net Platform. The solution enables a mobile phone or tablet to collect and visualize data from medical devices and biometric sensors and to securely transmit that data via the mobile phone or tablet’s wireless wide area network (WWAN) cellular connection or Wi-Fi to the 2net Platform’s data center. 2net Mobile is driven off of the end-user’s data plan, so enterprise customers are not limited to working with specific wireless operators.

So with everyone and all the choice of devices this is a platform to handle them all and as you can see the product carries FDA approval.  So again we get into the conversation with data and where it goes into medical records be it a PHR or an EMR we have crossing lines here.  You can see why an FDA approval was needed here providing a software engineer review for safety, mostly making sure there’s privacy and security as the information becomes available for providers.  We also need the human input so maybe some day the ONC will be it’s entity at the FDA as it’s just a matter of time before a closer integration of communication will be needed to cover more than just one side of the data issues, not to mention privacy.

mHealth Why Battle Over Where the Responsibility Lies, Make the ONC A Division of the FDA, Better Collaboration and Software Engineering Exposure Both Ways Around

Here’s another video that shows how the platform can work with a patient leaving the hospital and where the connection can continue to provide information to all involved with follow up care.  Again implementation and using with humans is key here and not just putting in a connection and expecting all to coordinate efficiently.  As well as the patient, the team has to adjust and be ready to receive helpful information and know how and where to react with it as well.  This is learning curve as we are all so busy today and needs to be done right and explained to all how it works.  Sure there will be savings but while this is new, let’s hope the folks with their analytics give a try before the reports and ROI stuff starts rolling in too soon.  That’s a problem today with some technologies is that people are impatient and want immediate savings reports when in fact it may take a while.  In addition the other side with insurers are the ones pushing for a lot of this as well.  BD

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Qualcomm Life has reached agreement with the UK’s Tunstall Healthcare to adopt its 2net Platform, the US company’s cloud-based system for holding data uploaded from medical devices for patients and caregivers.

Through its collaboration with Qualcomm Life, Tunstall will add the 2net Hub - which collects patient data before uploading it to the cloud-based platform - and mobile applications to its product portfolio, in addition to integrating the 2net Platform into its existing telehealth systems.

Tunstall, which claims to be the world’s leading telehealth provider, is active in more than 40 countries and supports more than 2.5 million people with its systems.

http://www.mobileworldlive.com/qualcomm-strikes-deal-leading-telehealth-provider#.UyBf_xiKehs.twitter

MMR Global and Cerner Reach Patent Agreement

In reading the press release all terms appear to be confidential so all I can assume is that some kind of licensing was perhaps attained with a dollar value.  Being around as long as they have I’m sure Cerner has a number of patents as well when it comes to intellectual property with the size of company they are such as their CareAware FDA approved systems for one example. 

Just recently Walgreens settled with MMRGlobal and there’s a few more out there yet like Allscripts and WebMD that have been given patent infringement notices.  The Walgreens agreement was interesting as it also had Drugstore.com, a division of the company to begin marketing and selling MyMedicalRecords, the PHR from MMRGlobal.  BD 

Walgreens and MyMedicalRecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements

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LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/12/14 -- MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF) ("MMR") today announced an agreement with Cerner Corporation relating to MMR's MyMedicalRecords, Inc. Personal Health Record patent portfolio, including U.S. Patent Nos. 8,117,045; 8,117,646; 8,121,855; 8,301,466; 8,321,240; 8,352,287; 8,352,288; 8,498,883, 8,626,532 and 8,645,161. The confidential agreement includes other terms and conditions related to an ongoing business relationship between the parties.

MMRGlobal CEO, Robert H. Lorsch stated, "We're pleased to announce this Patent Agreement with Cerner which represents a unique opportunity for Cerner to benefit from MMR's patented intellectual property. MMR is especially proud to have entered into this agreement with an organization that collectively provides solutions to more than 14,000 facilities worldwide including more than 3,000 hospitals and 2,900 physician practices."

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1908273&highlight=

Walgreens and MyMedicalRecords Reach Settlement Agreement Related to Patent Infringements

This is one of several patent infringements suits filed by MMRGlobal and if you read here often enough I have covered several of them to include Allscripts for one.   This is an interesting settlement as part of the agreement also states that the subsidiary of Walgreens, Drugstore.com will also be selling the PHR from MMRGlobal, MyMedicalRecords.com on their website.  Here’s the original post from my archives with additional details regarding the patents that were in question. 

MMRglobal (MyMedicalRecords.Com) Files Complaint In California Against Walgreen For Technology Patent Violations

Just a few days ago I also had a post with Walgreens filing patent infringements against CVS and Rite-Aid. 

Walgreens Suing CVS, Rite Aid, Wants License and IP Damage Reimbursement, Patent Violations, Software Used For Refilling Prescriptions Via Mobile Phone Scanners…Not Getting Enough Data to Sell?

There have been a couple other patent infringement cases settled such as Interbit  but this appears to be the largest so far.  A couple years ago I spoke with Bob Lorsch about the patent violations before many of the larger cases had been filed.  Their original PHR patents filed go back a number of years and there are some additional pending applications that I assume relate to the original technologies that were covered. 

MMRglobal Patent Portfolio, Bob Lorsch, CEO Answers Questions Relative to Patented Technologies

The dollar amount of the settlement was not stated as far as what Walgreens paid for the license purchased.  Below is the press release from today.  BD 

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Press Release:

LOS ANGELES, CA and DEERFIELD, IL -- (Marketwired) -- 03/06/14 -- MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF), through its wholly owned subsidiary MyMedicalRecords, Inc. (collectively, "MMR"), and Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) ("Walgreens") announced today that they have entered into a Settlement and Licensing Agreement (the "Agreement") to resolve two patent infringement lawsuits brought by MMR. Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Walgreens purchased a Non-Exclusive License to the MMR family of patents.

The settlement arises from litigation involving MMR's U.S. Patent No. 8,301,466 and U.S. Patent No. 8,498,883. MMR's patent portfolio also includes U.S. Patent Nos. 8,121,855; 8,117,045; 8,117,646; 8,301,466; 8,321,240; 8,352,287; 8,352,288; 8,498,883; 8,626,532 and 8,645,161 as well as numerous pending applications. Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Walgreens has also agreed to sell MMR's MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record (the "MMR-PHR") on drugstore.com. The remaining terms of the Agreement are confidential.

About MMRGlobal
MMRGlobal, Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc., (MMR) is a leading provider of secure and easy-to-use online Personal Health Records ("PHRs") and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions incorporating its patented MyMedicalRecords PHR. Each MyMedicalRecords account covers up to 10 family members, including pets, and enables users to safely store medical records and images and other important documents, such as copies of birth certificates, passports, insurance policies, financial information, wills and advance directives, in the system and access and share them anytime from anywhere over an Internet-connected device anywhere in the world. MyMedicalRecords is currently available in English and Spanish, with other languages being added. Each MMR account includes file upload, e-mail, inbound/outbound fax and voice messaging as well as a special Emergency Login, which makes potentially life-saving health information accessible to medical personnel and first responders. Critical data is pre-selected by users to protect the confidentiality of records in the account. Additionally, each account includes numerous health management tools such as automatic prescription alerts and appointment reminders as well as a drug interaction tool that checks for adverse reactions between over 30,000 prescriptions and over-the-counter medications. The Company's professional offering, MMRPro, is designed to give physicians' offices an easy and cost-effective solution to digitize paper-based medical records and share them with patients through an integrated patient portal. The Company also owns a portfolio of biotech assets that include anti-CD20 antibodies, data and samples from the FavId™ vaccine clinical trials for the treatment of B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To learn more about MMRGlobal, Inc. visit www.mmrglobal.com. View demos and video tutorials of the Company's products and services at www.mmrtheater.com.

About Walgreens
As the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2013 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) vision is to be the first choice in health and daily living for everyone in America, and beyond. Each day, Walgreens provides more than 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 8,206 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 750 locations throughout the country.

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