February 21, 2001

California Emergency Physicians Medical Group and PersonalMD Introduce Online Medical Records to State's Emergency Departments

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 21, 2001-- Secure Online "Emergency Card" Provides Crucial Patient Information to Physicians during Emergency Situations.

California Emergency Physicians Medical Group (CEP), the state's largest emergency care provider, announced today it has partnered with PersonalMD, a leader in online health management, to offer 1.5 million patients treated by its network of providers the ability to securely store and access medical records online.

Following a national policy trend of allowing patients more control over and access to their medical records, patients can now access their own personal medical information 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world, and have crucial medical information delivered to any emergency department almost immediately.

"Often times, vital information such as drug allergies, current medications and EKGs are not available during an emergency situation," said CEP board member and emergency physician, Ted Kloth, M.D. "Our new services will empower physicians to enhance patient safety and reduce medical errors with a new resource that instantaneously puts important information at their fingertips."

CEP member patients, as well as other health care consumers, can create and manage personalized health files that can only be accessed by the member patient or an authorized physician. Members will be able to add to their online medical record information such as EKGs, physician notes and medical files, which can be obtained via the Internet or standard fax machine. The process of retrieving records occurs without human intervention, which ensures that no one, not even PersonalMD employees, can access the member's file.

"The security and privacy of our member's medical records is our primary concern," said David Chazin, PersonalMD's Vice President of Business Development. "Our web site's extensive and ongoing testing and monitoring helps to ensure that the information provided by our members is confidential and secure."

PersonalMD, with 800,000 contracted lives nationwide, is the first consumer-oriented health site to launch online personal medical records and was recently given four stars (the highest rating) by enonymous.com for its privacy policy. While PersonalMD has partnered with notable groups including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Executive Health Group nationwide, the new alliance with CEP is the first of its kind in California.

"We are proud to team with CEP, one of the leading networks of emergency physicians. Because of their need to access crucial medical information quickly and easily, CEP physicians and their patients will benefit tremendously from these services," continued Chazin.

"Our hope is to educate our patients and physicians alike about the benefits of this essential service to help us better serve them in the emergency department," added Kloth. "The more informed an emergency department physician is about your health, the more he or she can do for you."

About CEP

California Emergency Physicians Medical Group is the leading provider of physicians staffing and management for emergency and ambulatory care services in California. Founded in 1975, the Partnership's core values continue to emphasize quality care, medical leadership and a high level of local, professional autonomy as well as long-term professionally satisfying career opportunities for its physicians. Today, one out of every ten emergency patients in California is treated at a CEP contract site. In total, CEP staffs 44 hospital emergency departments and 19 ambulatory care centers in California, providing care to an estimated 1.5 million patients annually.

About PersonalMD

Personal MD is a healthcare information technology company operating within the business-to-business environment. The company's unique positioning in the marketplace is based on its ability to customize its suite of products and solutions to address each client's unique needs and to integrate the solutions within the client's existing platform. The core of each offering is a highly interactive PMR (Personal Medical Record), which facilitates the connectivity of clinical data. PersonalMD is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.

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