This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

The best way to handle this transfer of information is explained nicely on the Apple web site, so we’ve copied that article here. You can also go to Apple’s web site to read it.

Basic Logotype:

JPG | PNG

Logotype with patient & doctor:
JPG | PNG

 
All the files in a handy-dandy .zip archive (1.27mb)

• logotype in jpg, png, eps formats
• logotype + patient & doc in jpg, png, eps formats

Download zip file

Press Releases

• 4/20/11 Patient Doctor Visits Inspire ExpressWell’s iPhone App

Nice little blurb:

Manage health with ExpressWell

Alexandra Yperifanos, co-founder of ExpressWell, got the idea for the ExpressWell app after she and her father created a document to track his health in 1992. He gave the single sheet to the doctor before each medical visit to make sure the doctor received all pertinent information.

Yperifanos and partner Andrew Hill want to help patients be motivated to manage their own health information with the app, available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch for $4.99. It helps patients keep track of their medical information and history in one place. ExpressWell MULTI is also available and will allow users to keep up to 10 profiles on the app, such as children, elderly parents or spouses.

Read the entire article here: http://www.nwitimes.com/niche/get-healthy/healthy-living/article_d32215f3-bfec-52d3-a207-9452790b4e53.html#ixzz1gX3qCkSN

Who Owns Patient Data?

By DAVID HARLOW

Walgreens is being sued by customers who are not happy that their prescription information – even though it has been de-identified – is being sold by Walgreens to data-mining companies.

The data privacy and security concerns surrounding the transfer of de-identified data are significant.  To “de-identify” what is otherwise protected health information under HIPAA, some outfits will simply strip data of 18 types of identifiers listed in federal regulations.  However, the relevant regulation (45 CFR 164.514(b)(2)(ii)) also provides that this only works if “the covered entity does not have actual knowledge that the information could be used alone or in combination with other information to identify an individual who is a subject of the information.” Thus, the problem with this approach is that, these days, nobody can disclaim knowledge of the fact that information de-identified by removing this cookbook list of 18 identifiers may be re-identified by cross-matching data with other publicly-available data sources. There are a number of reported instances of this sort of thing happening. The bottom line is that our collective technical prowess has outstripped the regulatory safe harbor.

Is this the basis of the lawsuit brought against Walgreens?  An objection to trafficking in health information that should remain private?  No.  The plaintiff group of customers is suing to share in the profits realized by Walgreens from trading in the de-identified data.

While I haven’t pored over the papers filed in this case, my guess is that there’s enough legal boilerplate in the Walgreens HIPAA notice of privacy practices given out and signed for up front by patients who fill prescriptions so that they do not have a claim worth much more than nuisance value.

This case reminds me of the landmark case of Moore v. Regents of the University of California, decided about twenty years back, where a leukemia patient wanted to share in the profits from a line of cells grown from cells harvested from his body by researchers who told him that his return hospital visits were for checkups and monitoring only.  He lost.

The specific governing rules in play are different, but I don’t see how the ultimate result would be much different this time around, especially since the Walgreens plaintiffs were probably given more information about how their goods might be used (in the notice of privacy practices) than Moore ever was.

Nobody asked me, but I would think that a more productive line of inquiry would lie with figuring out whether the data that is being sold – patient gender, state and age group; name of drug prescribed; and ID number of prescribing physician – could be combined with other data available out there to the folks buying these data from Walgreens and used to re-identify patient records.  Given the slightly-differently-de-identified insurance company records that are out there, and the profit motive of the data-mining companies, I would not be surprised if at least some of these de-identified records were easily re-identified, thus exposing Walgreens to liability for HIPAA violations.  The data-mining companies are almost certainly re-identifying the physicians, since that’s where the value in this whole exercise lies: targeted marketing to physicians based on their prescribing patterns.  (Regarding re-identification of patient information, consider the case of the Netflix prize, where de-identified video rental data could be re-identified by cross-matching with online consumer movie reviews – “Simply removing names does not ensure that data will remain anonymous. And the implications stretch far beyond the world of Netflix.”)   Of course, HIPAA violations just yield a fine, payable to the government (and we know how useful HIPAA CMPs can be in ensuring compliance) – there is no third-party liability under HIPAA – so it would be a stretch to translate them into a plaintiffs’ verdict involving cash.

David Harlow writes at HealthBlawg, a nationally-recognized health care law and policy blog. He is an attorney and lectures extensively on health law topics to attorneys and to health care providers. Prior to entering private practice, he served as Deputy General Counsel of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Best Emergency Medicine References

Simply search for ‘ExpressWell’ in the App Store on your device. Once you are looking at the App description page for ExpressWell, just scroll down the page, past the description, past the screen sample images. There, on the right, is a button that lets you ‘gift’ the App to another person. Press that button, and Apple will guide you from there!

Or, if you’d like to gift the app using iTunes on your computer, click here, and when you get to iTunes, choose a version of ExpressWell, then choose ‘Gift This App’ from the pulldown menu next to the price.

“We have compiled a list of some of our favorite apps for both the consumer as well as the health professional. The list is relatively short compared to what is available. The apps described here are usually for the iPhone, iPod and iPad, but there are similar apps for the other phone operating systems. “
“ExpressWELL – Cost: $0.99, helps you manage your personal medical information. It’s designed to be used when you visit your doctor, as an at-a-glance summary of your critical medical history, and as a reference tool throughout your visit. It’s so simple to use that it’s silly not to use it.”

You can read the entire article at:

http://healthworldnet.com/TheCuttingEdge/Health-and-Medical-Apps-You-Need-to-Know/?C=7867

Below is how the Agency for Health Research & Quality (AHRQ) put this idea together in a very compelling set of PSAs. Look at these; pass them to your friends! Go to the list of questions, and then the “Build Your Own List of Questions” link at the bottom right of the page.

From the AHRQ web site:

You ask more questions of your waiter.

• 15-second TV Spot (WMV file, 9.3 MB)
• 30-Second TV Spot (WMV file, 21.6 MB) Transcript

You ask more questions when buying a cell phone.

• 15-second TV Spot (WMV file, 8.6 MB)
• 30-Second TV Spot (MPG file, 18.6 MB) Transcript

Doctors can't read your mind!

• 60-Second TV Spot (MPG file, 8.2 MB) Transcript
• 30-Second TV Spot (MPG file, 4.2 MB) Transcript

We love how Charlie’s service really gets the immediate message out on the streets: ExpressWell is your health info on the go. Take it with you. Keep it on you. Doctor has questions? You’ll have answers.