PHR: Health IT National Coordinator Farzad Mostashari Tells Patients to Get Copies of Their Medical Records

LOS ANGELES, CA, Mar 12, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Farzad Mostashari, M.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday, March 9th in Los Angeles, "It is time for patients to ask for copies of their electronic medical record and download them. We do it for every other aspect of our lives but healthcare." In an article in Saturday's Los Angeles Times, Mostashari also said that "patients should take matters into their own hands." MMRGlobal, Inc. MMRF +3.40% , using its patented MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record (PHR) and MMRPro document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, provides the only available option of its kind for patients to receive delivery of their medical records in near real time regardless of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system or any technology being deployed in the physician's office, hospital or emergency facility.

In response to the article, MMRGlobal Chairman and CEO Robert H. Lorsch said, "MyMedicalRecords meets the objective of the National Coordinator for Health IT, specifically, to get patient records in the hands of patients today. In 2009, the Federal Government passed the HITECH Act committing $27 billion to help contain costs of a healthcare system buried in paper from which very little has been accomplished. Since the creation of MyMedicalRecords, we have spent more than $20 million to create our internationally patented MMR solution that meets the national objective to get Personal Health Information into the hands of the patient without changing the workflow of a medical office. As a result, we believe that MMR represents a tremendous opportunity for healthcare professionals and investors alike with a pipeline of billions more to be invested from the government to get systems into the main stream of healthcare. The greater the success of that effort the more patients would be connected to their healthcare professionals using systems like those deployed by MMR."

MMRGlobal's products and services move medical records from any healthcare professional to the patient in seconds using a universal consumer-centric Personal Health Record. MMR services connect to the most advanced Electronic Medical Record systems in the world, or a plain old ordinary fax machine in a sole practitioner's private office. The system also allows secure sharing of patients' personal health information with all their medical providers. Regardless of the technology, the system enables medical records to be instantly deployed electronically to a patient or their physician anywhere in the world. New patient accounts can be activated in less than a minute, at a cost of pennies a day. It does not matter if a patient is being treated at the Cleveland Clinic, employing one of the most advanced EMR systems in the world, or in an office using plain paper files, completely eliminating the need for standardization.

Read more at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/health-it-national-coordinator-farzad-mostashari-tells-patients-to-get-copies-of-their-medical-records-2012-03-12?reflink=MW_news_stmp