Hackers Request Ransom for the Return of Medical Records From Doctors Practice in Illinois–Encrypted Them But They May Have Back Ups Available

We have not had one of these stories for a while but the doctors turned off the server and called the police when presented with the ransom note.  Everyone knows about back up systems today and this story kind of makes one wonder if the ransom note was serious or some what of a friendly notice as if they have back ups, then why pay a ransom?  Also there were emails that were taken and the funny thing is here is that the hackers used encryption, so they want money to release the password.  Remember a few years ago about the ransom demanded from Express Scripts? 

 

Express Scripts offers $1 million award to nab extortionist in data breach case

In Virginia we had a hacker break in about a year ago as well. 

Would Someone Give the Hacker 10 Million for Prescription Information In Virginia – We have already been for Sale for quite a while now..

You do wonder about hacking medical records as there’s more money made with going after banks and financial institutions, so why mess with medical records?  BD

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The Surgeons of Lake County, located in the affluent northern Illinois suburb of Libertyville, revealed last month that hackers had burrowed deeply into its computer network, infiltrating a server where e-mails and electronic medical records were stored. 

But unlike many other data breaches, the hackers made no attempt to keep their presence a secret. In fact, they all but fired a flare to announce the break-in, taking the extreme step of encrypting their illicit haul and posting a digital ransom note demanding payment for the password.

The doctors turned the server off and notified the authorities, refusing to pay.

The attackers’ choice of tactics, particularly the use of encryption, indicates a level of sophistication and targeting that suggests they knew what they were doing, said Rick Kam, president of ID Experts, a Portland, Oregon-based company that makes data-breach prevention technology and specializes in health care. 

Based on the number of practices moving to electronic health records, “many more” of these types of breaches should be expected, he wrote in an e-mail.

And in 2004, health care facilities came under fire for outsourcing their transcription chores when several California hospitals were blackmailed by their own workers in India and Pakistan.

http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-blog/2012-08-10-hackers-steal-encrypt-health-records-and-hold-data-for-ransom/

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Woman Has Rare Disease Where Her Body Grows Fingernails Instead of Hair Inside the Follicle And Has the Medical Debt To Go Along With It

 

This is strange and the nails come out like black scabs and grow like a nail and when one is lost, it replaces itself.  She’s been to Johns Hopkins and the rare disease causes her body to produce 12 times the number of skin cells in each follicle and grows a nail instead of a hair.  They believe the start of the rare disease goes back to when she was treated for an asthma attack and was given a large dose of steroids and she had an allergic reaction. 

This is sad as it is now spreading to her eyes and bones and now she needs a cane to walk and she’s only 28 years old.  She did start a foundation for the disease called the SAI Foundation to help others with mysterious illnesses.  When you watch the vide you can see where her condition is definitely improving from her treatments.    BD

To learn more about the SAI Foundation and how you can help, click here.


August 10, 2012 (MEMPHIS, Tenn.) (WLS) -- A medical mystery: An allergic reaction to medication leaves a Tennessee woman with nails growing where hair should be.

Shanyna Isom suffers from a mysterious illness causes nails to grow out of a Tennessee woman's face.

The illness came on after the woman suffered an allergic reaction to steroids used to control asthma.

Now, Isom is the focus of a medical mystery study at the famed Johns Hopkins Hospital. Pictures show the tiny fingernails growing in patches on Isom's body. Doctors say she produces 12 times the number of skin cells per hair follicle, and that suffocates her skin.

Isom's mysterious illness has caused a financial crisis. She has a quarter of a million dollars in medical debt and her insurance doesn't cover her out-of-state care or a dozen medications she needs to stay healthy. Friends and family members have hosted fundraisers to help pay down the debt.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/bizarre&id=8769044

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Helium Shortage Stands to Create Supply Shortages and Affordability With MRIs and Some Clinical Trials– Congress Needs to Act Soon And Tax “The Other Miners”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 41

If you have visited one of the party businesses that supplies helium for those balloons we all love, then you have personally experience the price increases that have been passed along.  You don’t see as many of those balloons floating around as much anymore and of course we can do without those but the bigger crisis here has to do with healthcare use of the gas. In addition to MRI machines, helium is also used in the production of LCD screens and fiber optic cables so it’s pretty well engrained.  Insurance companies of course as well as consumers will be hit with the higher costs for MRI diagnostics.  There’s no substitute for the gas.

We don’t have a “real” shortage though as the US supplies 1/3 of the world’s supply from a huge plant in Texas and the money from the sale of helium from that plant is to remain in place until enough was sold to pay down a $1.3 billion dollar debt that the BLM plant incurred to provide the necessary equipment, etc. to keep it rolling and most of the debt has now been paid.  It’s not often we hear that kind of a story today with debt.  The full debt is on track to be paid off in 2013. 

The government sells the helium and it is sent to refineries and gas companies for further processing.  Right now there’s really not a lot in private industry with a huge interest in producing helium and unless the law changes, when the debt is paid off, the plant would close.  Newer MRI machines are built to recycle as much of the gas as they can but older machines are not as efficient and use more, some are in rural areas and if the clinics can’t afford the gas or get it, then they stop providing MRIs.  So the issue here is the price at which the government is paying back the debt and the prices charged for the helium, which is getting to be out of reach for many, again no more balloons either based on this price.  It requires a law to fix the antiquated formula and allow for a long pay back time or something along that line, in the hands of Congress.  It’s kind of scary to wonder if they will act or not as look what they did with the Post Office, and then folks wonder why healthcare costs keep rising. 

US Post Office Defaults on $5.5 Billion Dollar Retiree Health Care Payments

This is also going beyond US borders and is affecting clinical trials in an area of Canada at the University of Ontario. The trials have been stopped due to the cost of the gas and there are no other gases to replace for the research which has to do with development of treatments for lungs.  The Hadron Collider relies on helium to run.  NASA uses a large amount of helium.  Private producers of helium are required to sell their helium to the government and store it in Amarillo. 

It is estimated that the reservoir may run dry in 2018, but in the interim few companies are exploring setting up new plants to mine the gas as there’s more profit in “mining data” for bigger profits.  There is a plant in Wyoming set to open later this year.  This comes right back around to “data for nothing and the profits for free” when it comes to how companies make money. It takes a big lay out of cash to build a plant, buy equipment, etc. and then hire employees to run it and with uncertainties today, many are just opting to sell data instead as that’s easier to do with hiring a few geeks to mine the internet to capture and sell data.  Some of these capabilities are even being over sold with their value too, again technology to make profits and few jobs get created and the quants on Wall Street keep it alive with the over inflated values of a lot of the algorithms that run for profit.  We have an imbalance here and it gets bigger every day and much of this stems on the fact that we don’t have a Congress that is smart enough to see the big picture. Instead we get entertained again with attacks on Women’s health, the default topic for the digital illiterates in DC.  Again as consumers we pay gasoline tax, time to tax the “other  miners” (see link below) who live off algorithms here to help create a balance. 

We Pay Gasoline Tax to Keep Up the US Highway Infrastructure–Why Not Tax the Data Selling Companies and Banks to Keep Up the US Government IT Infrastructure? A “Buffett Tax” Alternative

Right now with current economic times you can’t quite get the government out of the helium business without some huge consequences in healthcare and again we have the digital illiterates who can’t see this and it’s shame as there appears to be a huge lack of “business intelligence” modeling in DC.  Just watch the news and see the big focus on “drama queen” issues that get the public in arms, and some of it rightly so as it is so stupid.  If you don’t have properly modeled laws today, you get some very big “killer algorithms” that have teeth and bite.  April is the big deadline and a as time moves forward the price for helium and solutions grow tougher. 

The plant in Wyoming, in the Riley Ridge field area  didn’t break ground until 2010 and is due to open I believe later this year but a big fire up there added some delay.  Commercial helium production has not been rewarded or heavily utilized, the market will be undersupplied when National Helium Reserve sales are discontinued and the scramble and rising prices will roll higher and thus so putting the National Helium Reserve on the stock market raises a lot of questions.   Congress has had some opportunities to look at technology for modeling, but nope, no dice and the drama queen antics continue, meanwhile back on Wall Street, Citigroup is working to figure out how to get more of your money, via those algorithms and a lot of this is a gradual process.  See why we are so far behind the eight ball? 

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IBM Watson Going to Work At Citigroup on Wall Street–Congress Didn’t See Big Data As A Tool (Hadoop Framework) When They Had Their Chance…For Consumers The Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Chapter 22

The Quiet Rise of Machine Learning-Like IBM Watson Offers With Speed and Learned Analytics-Congress Needs Technology This To Make Better Laws & Collaborate

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So when it comes to everyone complaining about the high cost of healthcare this is just one element of the entire picture and we only have “figurehead” folks in key positions at HHS and at the SEC that are clearly a huge disappointment in their decision making processes as they don’t have the background needed today to add enough value…time for new blood that can keep up and get some real intelligence in the Wall Street Algorithm games and stop being sucked in with some of the antics that go on in DC. 

“It is a technological arms race in financial markets and the regulators are a bit caught unaware of how quickly the technology has evolved”

Nothing personal here but new leaders are desperately needed at HHS and the SEC as times have changed and so have the responsibilities and it’s taking them way too long to try and catch up and there’s a few other departments in there as well but these two departments are critical right now as again the mind power needed as technology has evolved is far ahead of where they are. 

As a side thought with all this in the news, would you think an insurance company would invest a few bucks here with helium mining since they are going to pay the inflated MRI bills? Of course not as it is not their line of business but as things roll down, you could probably guess they will jump on the analytics and algorithm part of the plan to keep costs down and maybe figure out a way to limit access for patients, as that’s what insurers do best, work the algorithms for share holder profits.  There are some things in life that maybe are not meant to be traded on the open market today as everything can’t be for profit and the algorithms for profit are only going to continue to grow and become more complex so we are in for a wild ride here as you add flawed data and other items that come in to play.  Here’s a couple past posts that pretty spell it out and I guess we can stay tuned to see if we have folks in government that can solve real problems or more talk on the “default topic” of abortions when they are over their heads.  The Balloon Party is no longer affordable. BD   

Big Data, Flawed Data, Business Intelligence, Where’s The Future and What Has Been Our Past…A World With ”Algo Duping” of Society and Consumers

Complexities in Data Systems Growing Beyond Control –“Algo Duping” Society Combined With A World of Rogue Algorithms & Flawed Data Continues In Markets As Seen With Knight Capital This Week-Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 36

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One of the world's largest reserves of helium could be shut down as early as next summer unless Congress passes legislation to exempt the stockpile from the sunset provision of a 1996 law, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said.

The Federal Helium Reserve, located deep underground near Amarillo, Texas, supplies a third of the world's crude helium, and its closure could strain an already limited supply of the gas that has become crucial in the manufacture of many high-tech and medical devices and is extensively used in health-care, defense and high-tech industry operations.

In recent years, because the government dominates the market, private firms have seen little reason to invest in helium extraction and refining. Now, the possible shutdown of the reserve could lead a rise in prices to a point that would make production profitable, though it could take years to establish supplies lines from as far away as Qatar and Russia, which have reserves under development.

Hospitals run by the University of California, San Diego will soon only receive 80% of their typical supply, said William Bradley, chairman of its radiology department. That will likely force the school to pay a premium to keep its 10 magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, machines operating.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443545504577567102314948314.html

Technorati Tags: mri,helium,helium shortage,natural gas,fmri

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Garden Grove Woman Arraigned for Kidnapping Newborn Baby From Garden Grove Hospital–Appears She May Have Tried It Before At Another Hospital

As the story evolves here the Anaheim police department has also shared the fact that the same woman was reported earlier this year at another hospital in scrubs and entered the room of a patient at Western Medical Center, same thing carrying a tote bag.  It sounds like the first attempt was thwarted when the mother reported it to the hospital so she gave up and appears to have tried another hospital in Garden Grove later. 

One thing though this certainly speaks highly for technology as the alarm went off when she attempted to take the baby from the Garden Grove hospital, so RFID systems and other security efforts in hospitals are certainly a winner in this area.  BD

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Ramirez is accused of entering the hospital room of Jane Doe #5, a mother with a newborn baby girl, and distracting the mother by asking her to take a shower in preparation for moving hospital rooms. While the mother was distracted, Ramirez is accused of placing 1-day-old Baby Doe in her tote bag. She is accused of then leaving the room and attempting to flee from the hospital.

The defendant is accused of being contacted by hospital staff while still inside attempting to leave the hospital after an alarm on the baby’s identification tag alerted hospital staff that Baby Doe was being moved.

The defendant was arrested at the scene by the Garden Grove Police Department (GGPD), who investigated this case.

In the course of the investigation, it was determined that the Anaheim Police Department (APD) was investigating a similar case at Western Medical Center (WMC) in Anaheim.

On July 26, 2012, Ramirez is accused of entering WMC dressed in medical scrubs and carrying a tote bag with the intention of kidnapping a newborn baby girl. She is accused of entering at least one hospital room and asking a new mother questions about her baby including the sex and date of birth. The new mother reported the suspicious contact to the hospital and APD.

http://www.oc-breeze.com/2012/08/08/16534_garden-grove-woman-to-be-arraigned-for-kidnapping-newborn-in-hospital/

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Humana Acquiring Harris, Rothenberg International–Wellness and HR Services for Employers Providing Health Insurance

When you look at the site they offer additional services outside of wellness to include anger management, working with Alzheimer's and the office, all kinds of human resource programs and dealing with stress on the job.  Companies like the one that just bought them seem to be at the root of some of the stress today for many.  The offer executive coaching too so maybe the CEO of Humans gets some internal benefits too <grin>.  One of their big clients as listed is Cerberus, the company that bought all the hospitals in Massachusetts under the name of Steward, the management company.  Just one more company wanting you to live a healthier life.  BD 

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LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) announced today it has acquired Harris, Rothenberg International, Inc. (HRI), a provider of work/life services and employee assistance programs. Terms were not disclosed.

HRI currently serves approximately 5.5 million people in the U.S. and another 70,000 internationally. Now in its 31^st year, HRI provides services to employers assisting employees in dealing with personal issues ranging from emotional, financial and legal problems to child/elder care needs to alcoholism and drug abuse. HRI’s services include employee coaching and training.

HRI’s highly customizable offering directs members or their caregivers to value-added services while also offering certain ancillary products that assist employees with day-to-day life issues. The acquisition will support Humana’s efforts to help employer-customers reduce health care spending while also targeting productivity challenges. Loss of productivity due to problems with presenteeism, absenteeism, health issues and disabilities represents up to 10 percent of a typical employer’s payroll expense.<sup>1

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120809005774/en/Humana-Acquires-Harris-Rothenberg-International?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter</sup>

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State of New York Files Charges Against Ex-Goldman Programmer So the Process Starts All Over Again–Jury Of Peers May Need to Attend CodeAcademy So a Fair Trial Can Take Place…

  Yup you heard that right and Mayor Bloomberg said he was going to enroll and learn a little bit about code, so I ask the question, how does a high level hi-tech crime like this get a fair and impartial jury with enough knowledge to make a decision?  What was that code?  Who’s going to make that presentation?  Again I’m not saying innocent or guilty here but just want the facts and an honest and true conclusion.  What’s that you say today <grin>. 

In big bull pens as such with a number of developers they have to “check out” the code and there are some serious audit trails in place and again I go back to a file 32kb large?  What do the SVN subversion records show?  Sure that’s enough to contain some text, but how much?  Did it have any value as a stand alone?  Probably not and so much of the code used today is open source so you have some code that is proprietary mixed in with the open source base code used. All trading software basically has the same desired outcomes so it’s just a matter of the SQL language that is used along with expressions and so forth.  Was there any code in there from any other software from other banks that anyone else brought in or developed?  Who knows?   How much code does CEO Lloyd know?

You can read the embedded case statement below with the dramatics added “this code is so highly confidential that it is known as the firm’s secret sauce” so that statement alone kind of makes me wonder a bit.  It’s algorithms so let’s cut the Pig Latin here and all talk the same language.  <grin>. 

There is one way to work out of some of these situations and that is to devaluate the algorithms..hmmm…great idea me thinks.  In addition to trading look at the billions of dollars that banks, companies and others make on selling data, the stuff about us…data for nothing and profits for free.  These folks should be paying some heavy excise taxes for what they get off the backs of consumers. 

“Devaluate the Algorithm” And “Tax the Data Sellers”–A Cure for Both Healthcare and an Economy Based Heavily on Intangibles–We’ve Lost Our Balance

We talk about the need to revive manufacturing?  How is that going to happen when companies can grab a few programmers, get a cloud and write some data mining code to capture?  Sure software and algorithms have value but not inflated to where it is today. 

How about this guy not too long ago that was busted by the SEC, where did his code come from that was not working and shorting clients?

SEC Sues Quant–Undisclosed Error in Trading Algorithm- Miscalculating “Risk”-Healthcare Software Evaluates This Factor Too

What I said back then…

“When I read the part about only transferring less than 32 megabytes, just common sense would tell me this is indeed only a portion of what would be required, however it could be a module that could be used elsewhere, as I used modules written by others in some of my projects, which by itself was pretty useless as it only did one or two things, and of course a full program like an EMR needs lots of modules and SQL (structured query language) statements.  On the other hand too, I could see a programmer accidentally scooping up some code accidentally if multi-tasking with other items on the computer he’s working on.”

I continued on to still question here as again the file size was so small which would indicate just a code module.  Here’s a couple back links for history on the federal case.

Goldman Code-Theft Trial Begins–Did The Stolen Code Have The Potential to Create Algorithms for High Frequency Trading

Goldman Sachs Programmer Who Went to Jail for Stealing Code Has His Conviction Overturned–You Can’t Get A Jury of Peers Off the Street for Crimes With High Tech Algos

Send those jurors off to CodeAcademy so we get a fair trial here ok?  BD 

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Aug 9 (Reuters) - A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc computer programmer who was cleared of federal charges in February faces new charges of illegally using and copying the firm's high-frequency trading code, according to an arrest warrant filed in Manhattan criminal court.

The charges, brought by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, are a new twist in a case first brought by U.S. federal prosecutors in July 2009.

DA press release on Aleynikov charges

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/09/goldman-programmer-charges-idUSWEN697020120809

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The Automatic Prescription Refill Algorithm Causing Havoc at CVS When Not Personally Authorized By the Patient–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 40

This is an interesting story about securing business and this just happens to be the prescription business.  A patient goes to another pharmacy to fill a prescription due to the fact that his normal pharmacy was out of the drug.  While there he gets his prescription filled and gets enrolled in an auto refill program.  Well next month he goes back to his normal pharmacy and the CVS prescription got automatically refilled and billed his insurance on top of that.  Sure it took a person to initiate the auto refill program but once that was done “the algorithm goes in motion” and does it’s work with auto refilling the prescription and billing it.   

In essence this is no different than the actions we see in the financial markets with parameters being set to a “when”, “if” “where” or “as” clause comes into play with the way an algorithm is written.  That’s the SQL language that drives all of this technology.  “When” 30 days is up, and “if” the patient has not manually called for a prescription and picked it up, the program goes into motion.  So this article makes a good point to have the patient sign before someone can put the algorithms in motion to auto refill.  We all know that there are incentives and pay for performance programs in place for pharmacists today and here’s a good example right here where the insurance company pays the pharmacists for enrolling patients in a program they support.  Sure some of this is a good idea if it is in need, but how much of this might be done to make a buck only?  In this case United gets some additional data to mine to diagnose sub-clinical conditions. 

UnitedHealthCare To Use Data Mining Algorithms On Claim Data To Look For Those At “Risk” of Developing Diabetes – Walgreens and the YMCA Benefit With Pay for Performance Dollars to Promote and Supply The Tools

Pre-clinical diagnosing also has it’s issues as to how far does it go? 

“Previvor, If You Develop the Disease You Get Off the Island”–Subclinical Illnesses Leading to Overtreatment And Possibly Death–Ivan Oransky From Reuters Video

So again one starts to wonder how much advice is given to get you healthier and how much of this is done to make a dollar?  Back to this story with locking the patient into the refill program CVS is assuming they are going to refill all the prescriptions and you get enough of these types of situations the old business intelligence software for projecting sales comes into play and winds up being part of a presentation on dollars expected to show shareholders.  All the patient knows is that they need their medication and the pharmacist just wants to earn an extra dollar and neither have the full picture of how this all plays out in large numbers, so the consumer gets it again for those sales projections made to sell stock.   What a shock the patient received when he went back to his regular pharmacy and was told he would have to pay $600 as the auto refill kicked in at CVS and was filled there as well as being billed to his insurance.  

My mother had a situation with refills for her glucose strips in where she was getting over loaded with strips as she tests twice a day and the pharmacy said she had to do it 3 times a day and she’s been testing for over 20 years.  That caused havoc too as she didn’t want the waste of the strips but the drug store didn’t have a “model” to auto refill based on 2 times a day so here you go again with pushing out the prescriptions.  This went all the way back to the doctor and insurance company dueling with the pharmacist too in the fact that both said twice a day was fine.  See how this works for money when the algorithms get in place?  BD 

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All businesses want people as repeat customers. And when it comes to drugstores, that means they want you to keep refilling prescriptions.

But you'd think they'd ask first before signing you up for automatic refills and billing your insurer.

In the case of CVS Pharmacy, the country's second-largest drugstore chain, after Walgreens, the official policy is that customers' approval is always sought before people are enrolled in the company's ReadyFill program.

But B.G. Stine, 52, of Torrance had a decidedly different experience when he stopped by a CVS branch to fill a couple of prescriptions for his brother, Mike, who has Parkinson's disease.

A month later, it was time to get the prescriptions refilled. Stine went, as usual, to the retirement community's pharmacy to pick up the drugs.

This time, the pharmacist informed him that he'd have to pay the full $600 price for the medications that had been out of stock last time. CVS apparently had already filled the prescriptions and billed Mike's insurer.

The way things stand, a pharmacist signs up people via computer. There are no forms or written authorizations.

This is obviously a problem, as Stine's experience makes clear. While CVS' official policy may be that the customer calls all the shots for ReadyFill, an unscrupulous (or bonus-minded) company worker can easily cut corners and sign up anyone without his or her knowledge.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20120720,0,2146386.column

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Ascension Health Renews Its 5 Year Contract with Accretive With Caution as Agreement Includes Provisions to Cancel Should Any Type of Abuse Occur

It might be safe to say that at the Ascension hospitals there should be no collectors in the ER and Accretive will have to keep much better track of their computers and not be sharing patient information with investors on Wall Street.  That about does it for the big stuff and keeping pay for performance in check.  If you did not read the outcome in Minnesota they are barred for a while in that state.  If you read below Accretive gets 41% of their revenue from Ascension and Ascension owns a small percent, 7, of Accretive Health.  Also, the company must direct uninsured and low income patients toward charity care and help them find payment sources.  BD 

Accretive Health Barred From Operating In Minnesota for Two to Six Years–One 3rd Party Collection Agent Patients Won’t Have to Deal With at the Hospital For A While…

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Ascension Health has signed a five-year renewal of its contract with Chicago-based Accretive, according to a filing today by the revenue management company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

But Accretive, which has been doing business with Ascension since 2004, must conform to each of the Ascension hospitals' policies for billing, collections and charity care, and follow the ethical and religious guidelines for Catholic health care services.

It also must direct eligible uninsured and low-income patients toward charity care and help them identify potential payment sources.

Ascension can sever its agreement if Accretive tarnishes the hospital network's brand, reputation or operations, the filing said. 

Ascension Health owns 7 percent of Accretive and generated 41 percent of its net services revenue in 2011, according to the SEC filing.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120807/NEWS03/120809834/ascension-sets-conditions-to-renew-big-contract-with-accretive

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FDA To Limit Use of Stryker Artery Opening Brain Stent & States It Could Cause More Harm Than Treating Patients With Drugs

A much smaller group of patients will now have the stent available and there have been campaigns on the web to even have the device recalled.  The patients who can now have the implant are those who have had several strokes that are already on a medication treatment plan, in other words more as a last defense treatment.  BD

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators said on Wednesday they would limit the use of Stryker Corp's artery-opening stent for the brain to a narrower group of patients, based on new data and safety information.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the label for the stent, called the Wingspan system, after most outside advisers to the agency in March recommended the device should not be used in the majority of patients. A study last year showed it caused more harm than anti-clotting drugs.

Wingspan is used to open blocked arteries in the brain when clot-dissolving drugs like aspirin and Plavix do not work.

The stent is supposed to improve blood flow and prevent people who have already had a stroke from having another one.  

Plavix, known generically as clopidogrel, is made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Sanofi SA.

But a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed the stent may actually do more harm than treating people with drugs and lifestyle changes.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48574849

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Siri Has Competition Nina From Nuance And Ready to Give the Virtual Personal Assistant Business A Run for the Money

This makes sense of course as who better to come up with a competitor than Nuance which for years has been engrained in medical records and other technologies with speech recognition.  Nina will live on a hosted cloud so you will need to be connected and will work on any smart phone if I am reading this correctly.  Nina also will have 40 different voices to choose from. 

While Siri has been directed toward the consumer Nina is dressed up and ready to enter the business world.  Nina brings her own API dressings for customization and some other goodies Nina packs a biometric marker to identify users so this should be a bit more secure and of interest to the financial market as well as healthcare.  The US military has a pilot program coming up soon with using Nina for their USAA financial services.

The video below will show you how it works and it kind of reminds me a bit of some of the features Microsoft has for their business communications.    You can speak a password so who doesn’t like that.  BD 

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There is a new natural-language, speech-based virtual assistant in town: Nuance on Monday introduced Nina to rival Apple's Siri.

Nina can be used by smartphone application developers -- or any other type of user who would like to deploy the technology's mix of speech recognition, text-to-speech and voice biometric technology, for that matter. Nuance is offering Nina as a hosted, cloud-based service.

At first blush, Nina and Siri have a lot in common, starting with the voice itself. However there are significant differences between the two.

Nina utilizes a biometric marker -- voice recognition -- to identify users, which should make the service enticing for banks and insurance companies, for example.

In fact, USAA, the financial services provider that serves members of the U.S. military, veterans and their families, is using Nina in its mobile app. A pilot is planned for launch this month, and it will be generally available to all USAA members early next year.

Nina also comes with software development kit and a set of APIs for companies to allow customization, which also sets it apart from Siri. Using the SDK, companies can build voice capabilities into iOS or Android. The available source code lets users create a virtual rep who, among other activities, can appear to be awake, asleep, listening, processing, or answering a request.

The Nina Virtual Assistant SDK consists of three components, including binary APIs that provide access to the speech recognition, text to speech and natural language understanding; source APIs that provide mobile app developers with access to customize the persona; and source code of Nina Virtual Assistant apps and functions. These, such as the Nina Banking Assistant, offer templates and tasks for store location, bill pay, account information and other banking-related queries.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/75838.html

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Government Chasing Social Security Retirees to Dock Checks for Outstanding Student Loans–Killer Algorithms Chapter 39–Excise Tax Data Sellers Where the Real Money Is Today & Fix Government Formulas

As if things are not tough enough?  It’s different when collection efforts are taken before this stage and there are some that don’t have any other income and they may not eat when checks are docked.  Who is not writing off bad debt today.  Again if you watch the video there are different scenarios and some are very recent as well.  Is anyone going to want to look at a student loan in the future when they can’t find jobs where they can pay back and use the education?  Here’s yet another great Killer Algorithm story to where the man can starve and no ethics are considered…Algorithms says…and naïve dummies eat every bit of it up. 

New York Subway Worker, Dubbed as a Hero Has Pension Reduced to $5.00 a Month–Retirement System Error–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 35

Meanwhile back on Wall Street such large amounts of money vanish with an algorithm…Inequality continues to grow due to government departments who are so far behind and we have folks at the top who are not educated in computer science…folks like Shapiro will sink us very soon as the math runs a whole lot faster and moves money everywhere than what she can even think about while brushing her teeth.  Nothing person but lawyers are no longer the best choice to run executive departments of the government, they lack the needed talent. 

High Frequency Trading Algorithm Behavior And How the Machines Even Read the News and Trade Stocks Before Humans Can Blink an Eye Today–Remember Health Insurance Is Traded in this Market

Algorithms rearranged the money in the US and new algorithms are needed to move it again as so many got rich off running code and doing nothing. Time to devaluate some of those algorithms and soon…BD
 

“Devaluate the Algorithm” And “Tax the Data Sellers”–A Cure for Both Healthcare and an Economy Based Heavily on Intangibles–We’ve Lost Our Balance

http://live.wsj.com/video/grandma-new-financial-problem-college-debt/FA59654A-68CA-44F0-B00D-655C439D96BF.html#!FA59654A-68CA-44F0-B00D-655C439D96BF

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ONC New Health IT Video for Consumers–Very Well Done But Where’s Sebelius, Benjamin and Other Executives With the Role Models We Need? What Do They Do for a PHR? Inquiring Minds Want to Know…

Ok it’s time for another rant on the lack of role models with consumer Health IT and the video is great, hasn’t had many views yet but I’m sure it will as it was just posted recently.  I see the contests and competition for videos for consumers that are using Health IT and for sure I’m an advocate here as I would not have a section on this blog for PHRs with over 400 posts that go back to when they were created. 

My issue here is that we don’t really have so called “experts” anymore out there but there’s a lot of smart people that know a lot more than me but the paradigm of “experts” is slowly going away as is our addiction for them, because they are not there when it comes to complexities and predicting the future and they are not failures but are rather in the same boat we are all in. 

Relying on Experts When They May Not Exist–Many Intelligent and Smart People But Do We Have Misconceived Paradigms-TED

I’m tired of “it’s for those guys over there” information all over the web as if it’s for those guys, what’s wrong with “these” guys over here being role models?  Stop with the expert paradigm and become one of us:)  If you do that then a lot of “us” may have more incentives to jump in here and use some of these tools.  The problem too is that we have software written just to sell more software as that’s how it works and how in the heck does the public know the difference?

ONC Working On Another Consumer Health IT Awareness Program–Magpie Healthcare Again With No Role Models in Sight?

Well, again if we have some government executives as role models, there’s a bit of confidence that may just roll down and prove that Health IT for consumers is a good thing.  Shoot I can’t even so much as find a picture with Sebelius with so much as a cell phone in hand and I’m sure she uses one.  I asked last year if the Surgeon General uses her own PHR?  Nobody said a word, so is this a good thing?  Of course I know PHRs are a good thing but you need a bigger crowd here than this little blog. 

Surgeon General Announces Yet Another App Contest Maybe to Promote Their PHR “My Family Health Portrait”? Does She Use The PHR Personally?

Come on folks share a little bit of value that you have found and you might gain a little trust with more consumers and have a bigger influence, you think?  This should not be “magpie healthcare” and heck with social networking as big as it is, don’t you think it might be time to crawl out of the shells and share a little value.  Consumers on the web are, so get in there as the ONC spent enough time to put the work into all of videos and information on the site so be better PR and role models.  I see others give examples like Dr. Halamka up at Harvard so what’ up with this not catching on here?  Here’s the nice video that is worth watching by all means, we just need those magpies to come out of the PHR closet:)  BD 

http://www.healthit.gov/patients-families/video/health-it-you-giving-you-access-your-medical-records

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More Than a Quarter of the Primary Care Physicians in the US State Their Financial Health Is Poor–As Business Intelligence Algorithms Work Quietly Behind the Scenes And Keep Shaving Away A Little at A Time

We have heard this many times about the future of the primary care doctor with a small practice and like anything else out there today, the big corporations seem to be closing in here as well.  Overhead can be absorbed much easier when there’s a lot of areas to spread it out over versus what a small practice has.  Last year this article came out about the average cost that is needed today for taking insurance.

Health Insurance Paper Work Costs Doctors an Average of $83k a Year

This is a built in cost and I might say since last year is probably on the rise just due to the complexities of what is required anymore as the algorithmic formulas for reimbursement and red tape multiplies.  Sure there are some trade offs that make some items more efficient, such as electronic claims and clearinghouses but they are only tools that go towards the over all reimbursement process.  Doctors are presented with new updated contract all the time and it’s hard to see where the cuts will play out all the time as it is complicated and when large insurers have spent many computer and man hours to keep their costs and reimbursement levels to where profits are made in each area of their operation, the individual doctors really don’t stand much of a chance for argument purposes as with formulas for profit today can’t use simple math to get to a realistic level of accuracy.  Here’s a good example of a mass roll out of new contracts.  This group of course is the king of analytics with the short pay for 15 years with their Optum/Ingenix group for out of network charges. 

United Healthcare Preparing to Roll Out New Contracts To Pay Doctors& Hospitals For Meeting Goals and Keeping Costs Down– Plenty of Subsidiaries to Provide Some of the Technology And/Or Products & Generate Income–Subsidiary Watch

One other gray area today is knowing who you do business with as insurance companies are buying up a lot of other related and non related companies and one day I wonder when someone will unravel all of this as far as fair competition as with data sharing today one subsidiary could have absolute knowledge as to what is going on with another subsidiary and come back in and sell services or products from another subsidiary.  How can doctors or even patients for this matter know where their dollars spend even end up and to what corporate conglomerate do the profit dollars go? 

Subsidiary Watch-Corporate Conglomerate Insurers Reduce Compensation Contracts Using One Subsidiary Then Market Same MDs With Another Subsidiary in Health IT

Those that control the code control the world and that came a higher source than the Medical Quack but is is true and we are all subject to this as the business algorithms have moved the money around and corporations have profited.  Sometimes this is a slow process and it works in the background so you can’t see what’s really going on but the masterminds of the algorithms design it that way.  If you want a good parallel pay attention to the market news of late…the algorithms are busy at work. 

Doctors Going Broke–You Can’t Even Give a Practice Away–Only Folks Buying Them Are Hospitals and Insurance Companies As It Relates to Reimbursement and/or Profits

When new contracts come out so does new software that is created and dumped on the consumer or the physicians to learn how to work with, it’s been going on for years and sure some of this is needed, but not all.  When your sick do you want to have to open Quicken Health or some other program like this so you can figure out where you can go, what exactly is going to be paid or not paid and then still end up on the short end of the stick as the contract changes mid stream?   Kind of hits patients when they least want to file through all of this but it goes on and multiplies every day so watch for more new web software to help doctors and patients figure out the complexities of health insurance, we don’t get a break but rather end up spending more time on finding out why we don’t get we need so much of the time.  Insurers want perfect files on all of us.

Attack of the Killer Algorithms-Occupy Wall Street Part 4 Health Insurance Style - One More App For Folks Who Are Tired of Flawed Algorithms That Require A Ton of Work and Research Time To Create “Perfect” Data Files for Insurers And Others Analytics Processes

Hospitalists, Peer Committees and Utilization Struggle to Comprehend United HealthCare Algorithms

Well after reading some of this is it any secret why the family practice is going away?  It’s all about the money and this area of small business in the US is not getting much help from the government. 
The cost and reimbursement algorithms rule in more place than just the market.

As a matter of fact even the demonstrators didn’t know why they were there with the Occupy movement but I have said this many times and made the post back in October of 2011, the Occupy movement has it’s roots right in the Attacks of the Killer Algorithms as formulas running behind the scenes arrive to either take your money, ethics and sometimes even both.  BD

Occupying Wall Street–It’s All About the “Attack of the Killer Algorithms”–The Unfair and Marketing Exploit of Ethics Using Math–This Could be a Subject for Michael Moore to Explore and Document In a Movie

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WALTHAM, MA – The newest monthly Physician Wellbeing Index from online medical learning network QuantiaMD shows that 26 percent of primary care physicians report poor financial health.

According to QuantiaMD this trend – as well as a lack of incentives and other professional challenges – is resulting in many PCPs moving away from the practice of primary care, even as the Affordable Care Act places added emphasis on prevention and primary care.

Key findings of the latest Physician Wellbeing Index of those physicians in financial difficulty include:

81 percent of physician practice owners report profits are down from last year;

43 percent of physician practice owners are having trouble covering their costs;

80 percent said a decrease in reimbursements is the top negative financial impact to their practices, while 71 percent also cited a rise in operating costs;

49 percent of employed primary care physicians have not had a salary increase in one to two years; and

18 percent of primary care physicians have experienced salary cuts.

http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/one-four-pcps-financial-difficulty?topic=29,19,21

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HCA Hospital Chain Accused of “Over Stenting” Surgical Procedures at Various Hospitals They Own and Several are in Florida

This was reported by a whistle blower nurse doing the right thing after watching a patient receive a stent who did not needs one and then of course the nurse’s contract was cancelled. The internal investigation didn’t take long to confirm what the nurse had reported either.  HCA, the former home of Rick Scott who is now governor in Florida and who was let a few years ago during a fraud investigation to where HCA paid some big fines.  Back in March of 2011 they had the largest private equity firm IPO offering of 3.8 billion, a record at that time. 

HCA operates 164 hospitals in the US and also own surgical centers and has some interests in the UK.  A couple years ago in Maryland there was a siege of over stenting to where the doctor was brought to court.  When the internal investigation continued they also found that none of the patients were every notified who may have been entitled to any compensation.  Cardiology is a big source revenue for the hospital chain.  BD

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In the summer of 2010, a troubling letter reached the chief ethics officer of the hospital giant HCA, written by a former nurse at one of the company’s hospitals in Florida.

In a follow-up interview, the nurse said a doctor at the Lawnwood Regional Medical Center, in the small coastal city of Fort Pierce, had been performing heart procedures on patients who did not need them, putting their lives at risk.

In less than two months, an internal investigation by HCA concluded the nurse was right.

“The allegations related to unnecessary procedures being performed in the cath lab are substantiated,” according to a confidential memo written by a company ethics officer, Stephen Johnson, and reviewed by The New York Times.

Mr. Tomlinson’s contract was not renewed, a move that Mr. Johnson said in the memo was in retaliation for his complaints.

HCA also declined to show that it had ever notified patients, who might have been entitled to compensation from the hospital for any harm.

Some doctors accused in the reviews of performing unnecessary procedures are still practicing at HCA hospitals.

But the pressure is even greater for HCA. In 2000, the company reached one of a series of settlements involving a huge Medicare fraud case with the Justice Department that would eventually come to $1.7 billion in fines and repayments. The accusations, which primarily involved overbilling, occurred when Rick Scott, now the governor of Florida, was the company’s chief executive. He was removed from the post by the board but was never personally accused of wrongdoing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/business/hospital-chain-internal-reports-found-dubious-cardiac-work.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

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Pediatric Surgeon In Chicago Died While Saving Lives of 2 Children in Lake Michigan

This is so sad but he died a great hero for sure.  The news article states he pulled the 2 children from the undertow to only get pulled under himself.   BD  

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Dr. Donald Liu, a pediatric surgeon at University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, dedicated himself to helping children.

On Sunday morning, Liu died while saving two youths struggling in the waters of Lake Michigan off a small beach in Michigan about 90 miles from Chicago, authorities said.

Liu, 50, of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, was on a weekend getaway in Michigan when he noticed two children struggling, University of Chicago Hospitals spokesman John Easton said. "Two kids had been caught in a current, and he went out and saved them both."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-05/news/ct-met-u-of-c-pediatrician-drowns-0806-20120806_1_pediatric-surgeon-liu-water-rescue

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High Frequency Trading Algorithm Behavior And How the Machines Even Read the News and Trade Stocks Before Humans Can Blink an Eye Today–Remember Health Insurance Is Traded in this Market

 

There’s always going to be a niche for algorithms…they are not going away and are part of our world and we need to figure out how to deal with them.  What is going to allow us to understand the ecosystem?  He makes a good point with algorithms controlling futures and prices on natural resources that humans need and what can happen there.  If you happened to read over the weekend, Southwest Airlines the latest Attack of the Killer Algorithms.  You know in this video, he used that terminology too, “Killer Algorithms”.
 

Southwest Airlines Multiple Books Passengers Via Advertised Discount And Ran Up Consumer Credit Cards and Charged Bank Accounts – Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 38

I said this 3 years ago and everyone somewhat laughed about a US Department of Algorithms but after last week I don’t think anybody’s laughing and the SEC did the right thing, be responsible for the formulas you kick out there…look where we are now and Dr. Gouley says in his lecture we have to learn how to live with the algos.  He gets very scientific with his explanations while I use every day examples on how algorithms affect our lives. 

 

“Department of Algorithms – Do We Need One of These to Regulate Upcoming Laws?

I’ll also go one up and add in another focus and that is flawed data that is used for decision making and it also is growing in leaps and bounds.  Consumers on the markets today can’t compete with the machines and there is a lot of “Algo Duping” going on in more ways than one, both on the markets and off the markets.  Dr. Gouley calls a lot of the activity “the black swans” making a lot of noise.  He says the same thing I have said over and over, you don’t see them and again the ones in real life outside the stock exchanges is what the created the madness that nobody could understand.  Read Chapter One from the Attack of the Killer Algorithms written in October of 2011. 

                                           Algorithms are not stable.

Complexities in Data Systems Growing Beyond Control –“Algo Duping” Society Combined With A World of Rogue Algorithms & Flawed Data Continues In Markets As Seen With Knight Capital This Week-Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 36

Well we come to healthcare and when the machines read…caution needed as we don’t want them to begin writing for a while yet.  One more note, back in January when Richard Cordray took over as our consumer watch dog, I said I sure hope he knows formulas and algorithms and you should have seen the huge number of government agencies that hit that story:)  That is why I say today that figureheads are hurting use and we need smarter folks to head up some cabinet positions and departments, SEC and HHS are two in most dire need right now. 

What do we do when algorithms break a futures contract or worse yet one from a health insurance company?   BD

President Appoints Richard Cordray as New Consumer Financial Protection Chief - Hope He Knows And Understands Correcting Flawed Math and Formulas To Battle the “Financial Attack of Killer Algorithms” On Consumers With Banks and Corporate USA

Preditory-Prey Algorithms…

Dr. Sean Gourley is the founder and CTO of Quid. He is a Physicist by training and has studied the mathematical patterns of war and terrorism. He is building tools to augment human intelligence.
Description of Talk:
The speed of human strategic thinking is fundamentally limited by the biological hardware that makes up the brain. As humans we simply cannot operate on the millisecond time scale -- but algorithms can, and it is these algorithms that are now dominating the financial landscape.

In this talk Sean Gourley examines this high frequency algorithmic ecosystem. An ecosystem, Gourley argues, that has evolved to the point where we as humans are no longer fully in control.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V43a-KxLFcg
Related Reading:

No Pity For Knight Capital As Code Made the Markets and It Will Also Destroy the Markets–Let The Quants Choke As They Should Run No Code Before It’s Time For Sake of Greed and Money To Be First To Grab a Dollar–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 37

Attack of the Killer Algorithms–Digest & Links for 35 Chapters–on How Math and Crafty Formulas Today Running on Servers 24/7 Make Life Impacting Decisions About You–Updated 6-24-2012

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MyMedicalRecords PHR (MMRGlobal) Provider and Patient Value Continues to Grow As 63% Of Physicians Continue to Rely on the Fax For Healthcare HIPAA Compliant Data Transmissions–Sponsor News

The fax today in healthcare still plays a very important role with doctors, hospitals,etc.  Granted over the years the fax capabilities have grown and in the early days who would have ever thought that faxing and the internet would come together, well they have, actually many years ago.  Myself I dumped the “fax machine” I want say around 2000 or and utilize internet faxing.  I still have individuals who send me information via a fax machine as well though as it is what is available and accessible.  The fax is still alive and well and just got better with the internet. 

One other issue to consider with faxing is privacy and this area has been one of the long time HIPAA compliance methodologies.  A while back I wrote about the value of a PHR and personally myself if you read at the Medical Quack often enough then you know I have been an avid supporter of PHRs and you can read the section that has over 400 posts on this topic that date back to when the PHR was born.  Below is another link to a story of interest that also states how one Veteran was able to access his medical records in the midst of a down system at Walter Reed.  MyMedicalRecord allows you to get your records and store them for access as well with the Blue Button from the VA.  With the government making this option available many have downloaded their records to store in a PHR.  I have helped a few through this process as when you use one yourself instead of being repetitive of what’s on the web, you can clearly see the value yourself. 

A Strong Case for the Veterans Affairs “Blue Button”–Patient Access To Their Medical Records–Role Model Employee From the Navy Recounts His Experience At Walter Reed Hospital–We Need to Hear More Like This

Below is a press release from MMRGlobal/MyMedicalRecord.com that further discusses their options and benefits offered to the consumer, and how integration with EHRs such as 4Medica continues to grow and MyMedicalRecord offers integrated solutions for providers based on additional patented technologies such as voice mail that create a full rounded solution, easy enough and simple to understand. 

I have spoken several times on the topic and believe it or not, seniors really get this and a few years ago when I spoke in Newport Beach before many of the newer technologies were available, several were already carrying around their medical records on a USB stick and what we have today with storing online is yet even better as you don’t have to worry about losing a USB drive either.    When you have a few moments you can use the link at the top of the page and explore what MyMedicalRecords has to offer for both patients and providers.  BD

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Press Release: 

LOS ANGELES, CA, Aug 06, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- MMRGlobal, Inc. MMRF -5.71% ("MMR") today called attention to the annual National Physicians Survey showing that fax remains the predominant form of communication for 63% of healthcare providers. MMRGlobal owns numerous worldwide patents encompassing hundreds of claims for the use of fax in Health IT. An article in the August 3, 2012 edition of Healthcare IT News entitled "Getting the Fax Straight" goes into detail about the survey and why fax technology will stay as an important feature in the healthcare industry for at least a decade as it evolves to widespread use in heath IT and specifically Electronic Medical Record systems (EMRs).

The article and survey underscore the value of MMRF to investors since telephony and fax make up the backbone and infrastructure of the Company's patented products and services including its MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record (PHR) and MMRPro professional document management systems. MMR's patented systems integrate telephony, fax and the Internet combined with proprietary delivery, access and encryption technologies which means that MMR products and services provide the only system of its kind that can easily connect to any doctor, hospital or healthcare professional and patient in the world.

The Company's patents also cover the transmission of medical records faxed to a Personal Health Record through most inbound fax services including those found in mobile applications for Android and iPhones and systems such as those found in Visual Voice Mail where fax is also received. In addition, the MMR platform features special patient privacy controls which provide paramedics and early responders access to permission-based patient files in an emergency through a separate emergency access portal. The newest patent also provides for patients to receive voice communications messages from healthcare providers through their PHR account.

Bob Lorsch, Chairman and CEO of MMRGlobal, said, "Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent globally to find ways to efficiently connect healthcare providers and patients. The one word everyone forgets is standardization. In the 1980s we saw the breakup of AT&T as part of a plan to standardize telecommunications and create a competitive market for the then Bell Operating Companies. In 2012, it still has not happened and the Regional Bell Operating Companies are all but gone. In the world of health IT, the only piece of standard equipment found in any hospital or doctor's office is the fax.

Even the survey points out that only one out of three physicians use a laptop, 20% use smartphones and 12% use iPads in their practices while all continue to use some form of fax. It was that way when we founded MMR and applied for our patents and it's still that way today. Fax technologies now integrate into the most advanced electronic medical records systems because that is the standard the majority of physicians still want to use."

The Company already has three patents issued in the United States for its "Method and System for Providing Online Medical Records" and "Method and System for Providing Online Records," and others issued in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Mexico. The Company's health IT portfolio also has an additional 186 claims in various stages of being issued, pending or applied for in the U.S.

Additionally, MMR has pending applications filed in numerous other countries of commercial interest around the world including Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and European nations. The Company also owns 40% of a Joint Venture with Unis-Tonghe Technology (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. in China called the "Unis Tonghe MMR International Health Management Service Co., Ltd."

The healthcare industry has already started taking note of MMRGlobal's Intellectual Property. 4medica(R), provider of the industry's leading cloud based clinical integration platform and solutions for healthcare professionals, is licensing and selling the Company's version of MMR fax services into its Integrated Electronic Health Record (4medica iEHR(R)) for secure, HIPAA-compliant inbound/outbound faxing on the 4medica EHR platform. Recognizing the importance of fax in healthcare, Oleg Bess, M.D., 4medica CEO, said, "The move to electronic medical records is inevitable, but faxing remains an important form of communication and patient data transfer."

MMRGlobal's patented PHR and professional health IT services do not resemble what most people perceive as traditional fax. The Company's software systems seamlessly connect hospitals and physicians with patients. The systems use encrypted digitized file formats over ordinary telephone and wireless networks which safely transmit medical records and other important documents from wherever they are to wherever they need to be. When a document is received by either the MyMedicalRecords PHR or MMRPro document management and imaging system, multiple alerts are immediately sent to users, which can include family members, physicians and office administrators, alerting them to the information. This notification feature helps ensure that important information by voice or fax gets securely delivered to where it needs to go when it needs to get there.

Building on its patented telecommunications infrastructure, the Company's health IT patent portfolio includes claims directed at the filing, management, navigation and accessing of Personal Health Records including dental records, children's health records, and veterinary health records for pets as well as access to potentially lifesaving data in a disaster or other emergency. They also include claims surrounding telemedicine and the channel for selling Personal Health Records in retail stores as well as claims that help ensure the privacy of a patient's most personal and confidential health records and other important documents.

The Company's intellectual property portfolio of Personal Health Record patents issued and others pending and applied for are also being utilized in the Company's MMRPro professional document management and imaging systems and MyEsafeDepositBox ( www.myesafevideos.com ) products and services.

About MMRGlobal, Inc. MMRGlobal, Inc., through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc., provides secure and easy-to-use online Personal Health Records ("PHRs") and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions, serving consumers, healthcare professionals, employers, insurance companies, financial institutions, and professional organizations and affinity groups. The MyMedicalRecords PHR enables individuals and families to access their medical records and other important documents, such as birth certificates, passports, insurance policies and wills, anytime from anywhere using the Internet.

MyMedicalRecords is built on proprietary, patented technologies to allow documents, images and voicemail messages to be transmitted and stored in the system using a variety of methods, including fax, phone, or file upload without relying on any specific electronic medical record platform to populate a user's account. The Company's professional offering, MMRPro, is designed to give physicians' offices an easy and cost-effective solution to digitizing paper-based medical records and sharing them with patients in real time through an integrated patient portal. MMR is an Independent Software Vendor Partner with Kodak to deliver an integrated turnkey EMR solution for healthcare professionals.

Through its merger with Favrille, Inc. in January 2009, the Company acquired intellectual property biotech assets that include anti-CD20 antibodies and data and samples from its FavId(TM)/Specifid(TM) 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 .

Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature, including future performance, management's expectations, beliefs, intentions, estimates or projections, constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some can be identified by the use of words (and their derivations) such as "need," "possibility," "intend," "offer," "development," "if," "negotiate," "when," "begun," "believe," "achieve," "will," "estimate," "expect," "maintain," "plan," and "continue," or the negative of these words.

Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the risk the Company's products are not adopted or viewed favorably by the healthcare community and consumer retail market; business prospects, results of operations or financial condition, including variations in our quarterly operating results; risks related to the current uncertainty and instability in financial and lending markets, including global economic uncertainties; maintaining, developing and defending our intellectual property rights; marketing and exploitation of our patent portfolio both in the U.S. and internationally; timing and volume of sales and installations; length of sales cycles and the installation process; market acceptance of new product and service introductions; ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; relationships with licensees; competitive product offerings and promotions; changes in government laws and regulations and future changes in tax legislation and initiatives in the healthcare industry; undetected errors in our products; possibility of interruption at our data centers; risks related to third party vendors; risks related to obtaining and integrating third-party licensed technology; risks related to a security breach by third parties; litigation matters; risks associated with recruitment and retention of key personnel; uncertainties associated with doing business internationally across borders and territories; and such other risks and uncertainties as detailed from time to time in MMRGlobal, Inc.'s public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company is providing this information as of the date of this release and, except as required by applicable law, does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mmrglobal-gets-boost-in-value-on-news-63-of-physicians-continue-to-rely-on-fax-in-healthcare-for-the-next-decade-2012-08-06

Technorati Tags: PHR,personal health records,MyMedicalRecord,healthcare,health IT,EHR,MMRGlobal,hosital,doctors,patients

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