Contrasting MMR to other companies in the PHR space, MMR delivers the most user-friendly, convenient and versatile web-based personal health record available today. Using proprietary patent pending technologies, complete patient information including actual lab test results, radiology reports and images, progress notes and all of a patient’s charts can be faxed, voiced or uploaded into the user’s password-secured account. Users do not need to install any special software or use any special hardware to use our service.

MMR also has integrated other advanced features, such as multilingual translation, a drug interaction database of more than 20,000 medications, calendaring for prescription refills and doctor appointments, and private voicemail for a doctor’s message and other personal uses.

There also is a special “Emergency Log-In� feature that allows a doctor to access a user’s account to view their most important medical information in the event of a medical emergency. To ensure individual privacy, specific data, such as prescriptions, allergies, blood type and copies of actual medical files or images, are pre-selected by the user for inclusion in the online read-only Emergency Folder. The site has been repeatedly tested to be sure no unauthorized person can break into any account.

In addition, MMR also includes an online ESafeDeposit Box feature that enables users to securely store any important document in a virtual “lock box� and access them anytime from anywhere using an Internet-connected computer or PDA. These documents can include advanced directives, wills, insurance policies, birth certificates, photos of Family, pets and property, and more. MMR is clearly one of the most complete user-friendly personal health records available today. I can provide you with more extensive information how MMR compares with other products on the market.

When Google Health was launched on May 19, MMR was included as an integrated service on its platform. This will enable users to move information from their Google Health account to their MyMedicalRecords account and vice versa. This will enhance the Google Health user experience by allowing the individual to store documents, images, and other personal information in MMR’s easy-to-use personal health record and will have the benefit of all the additional features MMR has that are not available directly within Google Health.

I would encourage you to visit MMR and join with a complimentary membership. Simply go to www.mymedicalrecords.com and sign up using registration code MMRMEDIA. I believe you will impressed with how comprehensive and easy-to-use it is. We hope that you will include us in any further discussions of the subject.

Sincerely,

Scott S. Smith
Director of Public Relations
MyMedicalRecords.com
10100 Santa Monica Blvd. #430
Los Angeles CA 90067
Ext 123 (Cell: 310/254-4051)
ssmith@mmrmail.com

Encl.

Great post… even if it is a bit long

I love the idea of Google Health. For me and my family I want to get all of our details that are spread across the world into something like this, because as you say getting all of the information into one place will only benefit me. But that also brings up the other point. I am looking to bring this together from different countries, let alone health services.

Here in the UK they do the thing where when you register with a new doctor’s practice, all of your current files are sent to the new doctor from your old one, but I don’t know if this is concise or not. The new doctors then do their own mini-physical to check you out and update the records for themselves. Pretty well all of them are now done on computers that I believe link in to the NHS (National Health Service).

Now how easy would it be for the UK Government to jump on board here and say, provide the option to citizens to transfer all of the citizen’s data into something like Google Health? I don’t think it would be that hard, especially if Google built the connections… and actually I think I would prefer Google to manage my records than the UK Government.

One of the reasons Quest was able to go forward was that they agreed as long as your physician stayed in the loop. It would have been much harder from a privacy/security standpoint if Quest were to electronically release results to patients because the normal business process today is aimed at delivering results only to physicians who then review and release results to their patients after having reviewed them and talked through the results if necessary. Most state laws do allow labs to release results directly although some do not. But in either case it is always necessary to ensure it is actually the patient who took the test (authentication) and in some cases it may also be prudent to let let the physician consult with the patient rather then just send the result without their explanation.

Ultimately I am sure it will be more acceptable to just authenticate the patient and release results directly to patients but there are a lot of barriers and I think it was better to get this off the ground now then to wait until all of those changes could take place. Keep in mind that if Quest were to upset the physicians it would very directly affect their business so keeping your doctor in the loop was probably the best short term route.

You will find that Quest can now begin to actively market and train their physician customers to embrace the system now that it is public; something they could not do prior to launch.

So in this case I think Quest should be applauded for taking this step to giving patients access on a national scale and I think the user experience will only improve with time as people like yourself keep helping to push the envelope and asking for the access to your records.

Either Quest will be compelled to take the risk to releasing them without any physician involvement or physicians will start to see this as a normal process that they need to embrace in their own practice workflows and policies.