Go Behind The Curtain & Ask The Wizard…
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
He will tell you, “it is real, it always will be, and it exists in and beyond every corner of every alternate universe”….so says Richard Bach.
I have spent the last four years blogging about the magic inside that keeps me motivated. Many have criticized me for being a frustrated version of Richard Bach; however, nothing could be further from the truth. I write my blogs the way I do because it works for me. Some readers might say that I should focus my writing more about the business of MMR, but what fun would that be, after all, if you can’t make money and have fun is it really worth it. The fact is that when I put myself out there personally I still get lots of the comments about MMR, but I also get comments about how I make a difference in other people’s lives, and that makes me feel good.
One example is Dr. Shakil Afridi (www.freeafridi.com), who is sitting in a dungeon in Pakistan after sacrificing his family so that he could help America pinpoint the location of Osama bin Laden. Kira and I have received a landslide of worldwide press from our efforts creating a campaign to free Dr. Afridi in order to call attention to this important humanitarian crisis. As a result of our efforts and the efforts of the employees at MMR, we received worldwide coverage last week, from London’s “Daily Mail” and Page 6 of the “New York Post” to Breitbart. Being who I am allows me to run MMRGlobal, a publicly traded company under MMRF, while keeping MMR in the spotlight and giving back by calling attention to humanitarian and philanthropic issues in the world like the plight of Dr. Shakil Afridi.
Now I am going to talk about MMR and how my Bach-like belief system is turning the dream of an emerging growth opportunity into the reality of a business which could hold more than one billion dollars worth of intellectual property rights for its shareholders. MMR is a company that was founded to facilitate better care by reducing medical costs and helping save lives. MMR is a journey I embarked on as a result of my own life experiences and my fight to survive a deadly form of cancer 13 years ago which I did.
As I sit down to let my fingers do the walking, I realized that it was time to let you see how it’s possible that a person can turn a dream into a reality by simply wanting it to be so. This is the second time in my life I have entered an industry that was dominated by multi-billion dollar companies in communications or healthcare.
I entered both opportunities as the underdog, first competing in telecommunications, then health IT. The first time, based on will and determination, I knew I won big when I went public standing on the floor of the Nasdaq. This time I know we are winning based on the fact that we continue to hit consistent singles in the healthcare business and doubles and triples with our health IT and biotech patent portfolios.
So let’s travel to behind the curtain in Oz so you can actually see what the future could have in store for all of us. I believe that when you resist change you are stuck with what you have. So in my world, I never resist change and I am always exploring places to visit on a never-ending canvas. Despite an extraordinary, unexplainable trading range in our stock, the direction is clearly up. MMR’s world promises to continue coming alive with a high quality group of strategic partners and customers. We no longer have to beat people over the head to get them to use a Personal Health Record. Now we can focus on delivering products and services. So as a result of consumer and professional awareness of PHRs and requirements to deploy them, we should begin to see revenues from operations and licensing far greater that any projected in the past.
E-Health is finally a reality of our time just like the evolution of other industries like credit monitoring services (which took forever to evolve), online banking services (which took forever to evolve), online travel services (which took forever to evolve), and online retail (which took forever to evolve). E-Health is now fast becoming a way of life. And after eight long years, MMR is well positioned to benefit from that industry growth by exploiting the marketplace, much like Amazon did in retail, PayPal in payment processing, and eBay in auctions and commerce, to name only a few.
As CEO of the Company, I could not be more excited about how this year is progressing, and all the things that lie ahead. For those who have followed this company since inception, when I have said, “the best is yet to come,” it means just that. For example, last week we spent a half-day in meetings with Sodexo regarding PHR offerings and an MMRPro distribution program internationally. We also met with representatives of the new employee owners of Kodak, who paid us a visit to help celebrate their purchase of Kodak’s Document Imaging business and other assets. This means supply lines from Kodak in the future for MMRPro has never looked better.
Our relationships with all our strategic vendors and partners are excellent; from Nihilent to ng Connect to Unis-Tonghe, and Interbit Data, Fujitsu, Kodak, and many others. We continue to make significant progress in Australia and, in fact, one of our larger Australian strategic partners was in Los Angeles over the weekend helping us prepare for meetings with government officials in Australia next month. We are also getting close to significant announcements in Singapore.
During the week, we continued ongoing dialogue with WebMD and we met with Quest Diagnostics at their offices near San Diego. While we work through strategic business opportunities with both WebMD and Quest, we are also in meaningful conversations with half of the top 10 EMR vendors, including McKesson and Cerner, with whom the Company has already enjoyed a five-year licensing relationship. We are also getting closer to a major announcement with a wireless carrier where healthcare continues to be a major priority and agenda item. In all cases, and with all these opportunities, the Company continues to actively pursue other licensing and strategic business opportunities both here and abroad, as evidenced by last week’s announcement about the Middle East.
And to the extent relationships involve more than strategic conversations, we are keeping the investment banking team at B. Riley very busy. While all this goes on, the Company continues filing additional patent infringement and trademark actions.
Speaking of patents, the Company’s United States health IT portfolio has recently been re-valued to add Japan which increased it to as much as $1.3 billion. As yet, the Company does not have a valuation on Australia, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, Israel, and European nations which when added could increase the number significantly. Australia and Singapore are currently the subject of active investigation into infringement matters at this time. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1815638&highlight .
The MMR Patent Portfolio was created about the same time that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology was formed. The MMR Patent Portfolio was granted over nearly an eight-year period of time as part of a multi-million dollar effort to create shareholder value through the ownership of patents and other intellectual property in 12 countries around the globe. Because there are thousands of patented products in every healthcare professional’s office and hospital, from the design of a handle on a scalpel to components of the most sophisticated imaging equipment, the healthcare industry has shown it respects the patent system, and, based on our experience so far, we feel good about our ability to license and monetize these patents on behalf of our shareholders. In fact, we are not aware of a situation where an industry has paid so much attention to the value of a patent portfolio since Samsung and Apple went to court, which further makes us feel good about the future.
The fact that the MMR patents are the subject of worldwide media attention, and in the United States alone, the Company believes that more than 3000 hospitals and healthcare providers do, or will, infringe on the Company’s IP by the end of 2014, should make for a very good next few years.
In closing, my favorite Bachism is, “You are never given a wish without the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.” So Kira, I am sorry I will be late for dinner tonight.
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Tel. 310-476-7002
www.mmrglobal.com
www.mymedicalrecords.com
Follow us on Twitter at MMRGlobal
Tags: Bob Lorsch, EHR, Electonic Health Record, MMR, MMRGlobal, MMRPro, mymedicalrecords, mymedicalrecords.com, Personal Health Record, PHR
No News Means I’m Busy Making Good News
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
My Sunday afternoons are usually spent like “Three’s Company,” with Kira, my wife, and Michael Selsman of Investor Relations for the company. However, these days we are so busy making news at MMR that we barely have the time to report it. Kira, who is also MMR’s Spokesperson, prepared a welcome dinner for Luo Jianhui, Vice President & Chairman of Unisoft Group/Unis-Tonghe Technology. Unis-Tonghe is MMRGlobal’s joint venture partner in China. Mr. Luo arrived last night for a two-day visit to Lorschville and meetings at MMR’s corporate headquarters regarding deployment of the latest versions of our MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record in China.
We will be discussing the growth of health IT in China since their nationwide EMR launch was first announced in 2009. Since that time, Unis and MMR have formed Unis Tonghe MMR International Health Management Service Company, Ltd. The venture was formed to enable both our organizations to participate in the growth of health IT in China and in particular the expanded delivery of MyMedicalRecords PHRs in China.
In 2012, the Chinese government announced a USD $3.6 billion (23 billion Yuan) investment to support the development of medical and healthcare technologies. The growth is driven by the upgrades of large hospital information systems and HIT infrastructure.
As to the very good news, following are a few of many headlines that you might look forward to in the coming months:
- Announcements on expansion of the Company’s patent portfolio in the U.S. and internationally.
- Updates on opportunities in the Middle East, in particular Qatar. In fact, one shareholder recently referred to me as needing to change my name to the Emir of PHRs.
- Continued announcements of licensing and settlement agreements, as well as an expanded patent education and notification program to hospitals and healthcare professionals including major hospital systems such as PinnacleHealth and other ambulatory care facilities that I have been meeting with in Pennsylvania.
- Specific announcements pertaining to licensing and deployment of the Company’s products and services in wireless apps.
- Updates on milestone payments from biotech patents and the beginning of efforts to pursue infringement claims pertaining to the Company’s anti-CD20 antibody IP.
- The “My Hospital Everywhere” PHR program in Japan and the effect that MMR’s patents could have throughout the Asia Pacific region.
- Anticipated updates and announcements coming out of Australia and Singapore.
- The culmination of all the above and more, which the Company will share in connection with its upcoming shareholder meeting in July.
Our management team remains as committed as ever to our customers and shareholders. In the last four hours on a Sunday night I have spoken with Michael, Bobbie, Rich, Ingrid and Eric all about different matters. The entire team gives 100% seven by twenty-four so that MMR can take advantage of being in the fastest-growing and biggest emerging market opportunity of our time, healthcare.
Many of you have followed Kira and my efforts to help free Dr. Shakil Afridi. Dr. Afridi is the man who helped verify the location of Osama bin Laden for the United States. Without Dr. Afridi’s participation, we may not have pinpointed the location of the world’s most dangerous terrorist. His reward has been capture, torture and a sentence of 33 years in a remote prison in Pakistan. To learn more about the Free Afridi effort visit www.freeafridi.com.
I just spent the last hour on the phone with Pakistan preparing for interviews tomorrow. As we observe the second anniversary of the end of bin Laden’s reign of terror, follow the media coverage of Kira and I appearing in national print media, television and radio in our efforts to help free Dr. Afridi. We will do our best to post times for interviews on MMR’s Facebook and Twitter sites. We also appreciate your registering at www.Afridi.com and voting on the “We The People Petition” on that home page. I will discuss the plight of Dr. Shakil Afridi and what concerned Americans can do to help get him released.
While the Company continues its efforts to notice and license hospitals and other healthcare providers, we have spent the last couple of months focused on selling our products and services or licensing our patents in advance of requirements for patient portals and Personal Health Records driven by Stage 2 Meaningful Use.
Although it has taken nine years since President George W. Bush signed a 2004 Executive Order leading to the beginning of health IT and MMR’s business of Personal Health Records, I am excited to see physicians, hospital administrators and the general public understanding the value and importance of having a Personal Health Record, which is why I believe that followers of MMR will keep waking up to Big News.
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Tel. 310-476-7002
Follow me on Twitter at BobLorschTweets
As Reprinted from Pakistan and The Wall Street Journal
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
This is our time – there’s been an unprecedented outburst of activity at MMRGlobal and in our personal lives. While the fight against terror is the operative agenda for our nation after the results of this week, along those lines, Kira and I have continued spearheading the launch of the citizen campaign to Free Dr. Shakil Afridi. Dr Afridi is currently imprisoned in Pakistan after pinpointing the location of Osama bin Laden for the American government, helping end the largest international hunt for the world’s most wanted terrorist. It has been a week of heavy media coverage in our lives from The Wall Street Journal, FOX News, C-SPAN and, soon, Breitbart and others.
On the business front here at home, The Wall Street Journal ran an interview with Athenahealth’s Jonathan Bush this week that speaks to the value and opportunities of the health IT business, particularly as it relates to online medical records. The piece highlighted that even today, more than 1100 pages of fax are still received in a doctor’s office per month. This clearly underscores the value and significance of the MyMedicalRecords patent portfolio in this extraordinary marketplace. In fact, as part of recent MMR press announcements, the Company called attention to a January 22, 2013 report published by the Michael Bass Research Group valuing MMR’s U.S. patents at between $600 million to $1.1 billion based on what is described as conservative estimates of a market projected to reach a GDP value of $19 billion. We expect those valuations to increase as a result of recent additional patents being granted to MMR in Canada and Japan.
As to Pakistan, please watch the important video of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher grilling Secretary of State John Kerry before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs about Dr. Afridi this week. Please view it on the front page of www.freeafridi.com where you can also watch Kira and me discussing this important topic all over network television. The Congressman forcefully called for the U.S. to stop funding aid to Pakistan while Dr. Afridi “languishes in a dungeon,” stating on a personal note, “shame on us if we ignore Dr. Afridi.” So true, that this country can leave the man who pinpointed the location of Osama bin Laden behind at a time when we are reminded in the news this past week what he stood for..
You have the chance to show your support for Congressman Rohrabacher’s undiminished efforts to keep up the pressure on freeing Dr. Afridi by signing a petition to free this American Hero and support Congressional Resolution 86. When you visit FreeAfridi.com, you can click on “We the People” which is the link on the upper left corner of the page to sign the petition. It’s especially important now because on April 25th a tribal court in Pakistan will convene for the 10th time in as many months promising to rule on considering his release. If we get 100,000- signatures by the 20th The White House will comment and that could make all the difference.
So from the pages of The Wall Street Journal, a U.S. Congressman and the Secretary of State on C-SPAN, and Kira and me on the major networks like Fox and CBS, the 20-hour days of my life are filled with excitement and opportunity. Most importantly, I continue to focus on business opportunities including the exploitation of our HIT and Biotech patents by attending marathon meetings on licensing opportunities for the Company. While I am focused on MMR, Kira is off shooting a music video for the band OK GO, I am also planning on bringing the Bob Lorsch Hidden Talent Revue back to Beverly Hills, and spending at least ten minutes a day stressing over carpet stains from our rescue animals.
The good news is despite so many important things to do, I have a feeling that soon my cell phone can take a break on a Sunday or, at least, be put on vibrate.
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Tel. 310-476-7002
www.mmrglobal.com
Follow me on Twitter at BobLorschTweets
What did everyone at HIMSS have in COMMON… WELL…THE PATIENT
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
I am on the plane on my way back to Los Angeles after a week in New Orleans for the HIMSS Conference (www.himssconference.org). It was an extraordinary week for MMRGlobal as one of the “Most Wanted” to see at the show. In some cases, being most wanted was driven by an interest in understanding what visitors to our booth had read about the Company’s patents and other intellectual property, but mostly because nearly every hospital administrator and Chief Technology Officer had Personal Health Records and interoperability on their shopping list going into Stage 2 of Meaningful Use.
And if it wasn’t a hospital in the booth looking for a PHR, they were a vendor also looking to purchase services to improve patient engagement, or to purchase the companies that provide the services that create patient engagement. One thing for sure, it was by far our biggest HIMSS yet, and everybody seems to be interested in buying, selling, acquiring or investing in anyone that offers tools for the patient, especially if it involves a PHR.
The week started with the food in New Orleans and ended with one more order of barbeque shrimp. However, the real focus of the week was anything but the food. It was about the ONC Coordinator, Dr. Farzad Mostashari, one of the most important men in my world, who in his keynote speech addressed the ‘human toll’ of a broken healthcare system, and how the way to fix it was though promoting interoperability and increasing transparency and access to data for patients, also known as a Personal Health Record. He went on to proclaim an agenda of no more excuses about patients not being able to get a copy of their medical records because of HIPAA. All I could hear at that point of his presentation was the theme “Our Day Has Come…” or something like that.
Dr. Mostashari went on, suggesting that to get us there, stimulus monies would go up to fund interoperability and offset any competitive disadvantage from sharing patient data. It was kind of like watching Kevin Costner in “Field Of Dreams,” when he was told by the “voice,” “If You Build It They Will Come.” And it looks like ONC will help build it and pay for it.
I have gotten dozens of calls from shareholders asking about the show and I could not have done a better job of telling them what it meant to their company than to explain that the United States government’s agenda of patient engagement is just beginning, and that patient engagement is what MMR is about. And to borrow from the “Music Man,“ with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for PHR.
Then on March 4, the first day of exhibits at the show, patents dominated the headlines, leading to a story entitled Patent Wars Heat Up and Cool Down at #HIMSS13. McKesson Corporation and Epic had announced a settlement of their longstanding, massive patent infringement case. Based on that announcement, the spotlight of the media shined on us and the recent press surrounding MMR’s extensive health IT patent portfolio and its possible relevance to the market. Our patent portfolio includes seven U.S. patents, as well as patents in 12 additional countries of commercial interest issued pending and applied for, including Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Israel, and European nations. The article explains the MMR patents, integrated into our existing products and services which include Personal Health Records, Patient Portals and other Electronic Medical Record systems.
That may explain why, as I sat on the plane with dozens of CIO’s and Administrators from hospitals in California, who were also catching the last non-stop Delta flight out of New Orleans, I felt like I could fly without the jet. It took 8 years of sweat equity and more than $20 million for MMR to get to where it is today. It took both the Bush and Obama Administrations. It took government mandates, $20 billon in stimulus (so far, with more to come), and a massive worldwide push to make patients aware of the importance of joining the movement of managing their personal health. And then it took the invention of Meaningful Use.
Also on March 4th, at 11 AM, my world got rocked when five of the biggest Health IT vendors, representing an estimated 41% of the entire EMR market, announced the CommonWell™ Health Alliance. For the first time, it was like the day I figured out how prepaid phone cards could sell through mass merchandisers, turning a $5,000 investment into a billion dollar market cap company, before I resigned as CEO.
Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, athenahealth, Greenway Medical Technologies and RelayHealth announced they were joining together for a single purpose of improving the quality of care delivery while working to lower costs for care providers, patients and the industry as a whole. The good news, and the validation of 8 long years, is that it starts with MMR’s primary customer, “the patient,” who triggers the ability of achieving data liquidity between systems, based on “Patient Authorizations.”
Nearly every presentation MMR has made over the past several years includes a depiction of how silos in healthcare keep providers from talking to one another. So when John Hammergren, Chairman and CEO, McKesson Corporation, said, “A national and trusted health information exchange will break down the information silos in health care and should dramatically improve the quality and cost effectiveness of care delivery,” the comment validated my beliefs in MMR and confirmed to me that our focus since inception on inventing and protecting technology surrounding PHRs was to take the right path from the beginning.
Neal Patterson, Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of Cerner Corporation, stated, “Consumers not only have a right to their data, but also have the ability to mobilize it in the pursuit of better health. The Alliance is designed in part to “Help providers deliver a history of recent patient care encounters, and, with appropriate authorization, patient data across multiple providers and episodes of care.”
That’s what MMR is all about, we provide Personal Health Records to any patient, anywhere they are in the world, from any healthcare professional, regardless of technology, with or without an EMR, plus a whole lot more. MMR is designed to provide Personal Heath Records from a lifetime of encounters regardless of where they originate or what format they currently appear in.
And the drumbeat went on, with CEOs from Allscripts, athenahealth, Greenway and RelayHealth echoing the fight for the rights of the patient and the betterment of care. http://tinyurl.com/9wmbyee
However, not all were singing the praises of Commonwell. Epic Founder and Chief Executive Officer Judy Faulkner, stated, “We did not know about it. We were not invited.” Epic Executive Vice President Carl Dvorak, commented, “Despite the claims made by the members of the CommonWell Health Alliance, nobody asked Epic to join the group.” He continued, “I would really sincerely hope they (meaning CommonWell), put their energy behind true national standards.”
In or out of CommonWell, clearly, Epic is demonstrating they also care about patients and interoperability based on their existing personal health record offerings.
ONC Chief Dr. Mostashari was also asked his thoughts on the Commonwell – Epic controversy surrounding the announcements and comments. He was quoted as saying, “We have to zoom out a little bit and not get into the he-said she-said. [CommonWell] is incontrovertible evidence that interoperability and exchange is now a key market differentiator and vendors large and small are committed — five years ago that was not true. There is not a vendor in the country that can be blind to the need for interoperability. I welcome any market-based approach.”
The mood at the closing of the show seemed to indicate that most everyone, including the CEOs of Commonwell and Epic agreed that … we all have one thing in common-the patient, and that the patient has a right to their medical records.
In an industry where agreement and standardization are more than challenging, let’s hope that the CEOs mentioned in this blog can all agree that MMR’s “patient facing” products and services are for the good of all patients. It’s just one more thing that I am working hard to create agreement on.
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010
Tel. 310-476-7002, Fax 206-374-6136
Follow me on Twitter at BobLorschTweets
Tags: Allscripts, Athenahealth, EMR, Greenway Medial Technologies, HIMSS, HIMSS13, HIPPA, Kira Lorsch, MMR, mmrf, MMRGlobal, New Orleans, New Patterson, ONC, PHR, RelayHealth, Robert Lorsch
This Blog Speaks For Itself
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
Thank you for your thoughts, friendship & support.
Click the page below for the full story
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010
www.mmrglobal.com
www.mymedicalrecords.com
Follow me on Twitter at BobLorschTweets
Tags: Bob Lorsch, Dominin DiNatale, Dr Afridi, dr shakil afridi, fox news, free afridi, hollywood reporter, jessica chastain, Kira Lorsch, Kira Reed, MMR, mmrf, pakistan, RHL, RHL Group, Sib Kaifee, zero dark thirty
“FreeAfridi.com” Probably One of the Most Important Blogs I Have Ever Written…
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
Last week, I was in Washington, DC as CEO of MMRGlobal briefing the Congressional Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee about my concerns on how eleven billion dollars and counting is being spent under the government’s EHR Incentive Programs. The monies are being spent in spite of the widely known fact that there is no interoperability and hardly any ability to create a comprehensive online personal health record, two items that were mandated as part of Executive Orders and other requirements to provide electronic medical records and personal health records (PHRs) to Americans by 2014. Of course, by being there I also hoped to have the opportunity to draw attention to the fact that MyMedicalRecords is already delivering interoperability and a comprehensive PHR now….today.
During my visit, I was asked by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher to lend my marketing expertise to help raise awareness to the plight of Dr. Afridi. My first question was, “Who is Dr. Afridi?” Then I quickly learned what I did not know, that Dr. Shakil Afridi is the man who pinpointed the location of Osama bin Laden for the United States. Without Dr. Afridi, the United States may not have found Osama bin Laden. His reward was to be abandoned and left behind in a Pakistan prison, reportedly being regularly tortured, and sentenced to live side-by-side with the militants who continue killing our American soldiers. I was shocked and I knew that something had to be done. I never thought that America would leave a hero behind.
The following is a copy of a news release that is being issued from MMRGlobal today. It explains in greater detail what I did in Washington and how those meetings led to Kira and me calling on Oscar® to help FREE AFRIDI.
If you believe, like Kira and I do, that this man deserves our combined voice to be released and regain his freedom, then visit www.freeafridi.com, read the Letter from Congressman Rohrabacher, and do what you can to help bring this great American hero to where he belongs in America. Kira and I will be doing our part on The Red Carpet events throughout the weekend and on news broadcasts wherever we can similar to the one on CBS that is here: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/02/20/can-zero-dark-thirty-oscars-help-free-imprisoned-doctor-who-helped-find-bin-laden.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MMRGlobal CEO Briefs Congressional Oversight Subcommittee on Questions Surrounding Better Ways to Have Spent $11 Billion on HIT Incentives
Los Angeles, CA (February 22, 2013) – Robert H. Lorsch, Chairman and CEO of MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF) (“MMR”), a leading provider of Personal Health Records (PHRs), MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and MMRPro document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, recently met with U.S. Congressional Representatives along with their staffs and the staff of the Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The purpose of the meeting was to brief Representatives and staff on an independent compilation of articles, blogs, reports and opinions pertaining to questions surrounding the payments of nearly $11 billion in stimulus monies under the government’s EHR and Meaningful Use incentive programs. The meeting was also intended to address concerns that primary requirements set forth in federal legislation pertaining to the provisioning of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) were not being met, specifically those which pertain to standardization, interoperability and requirements that most Americans have access to all their protected personal health information through some type of secure Personal Health Record similar to existing offerings from MMR.
According to Lorsch, “After the briefing portion of my presentation, I was able to demonstrate to staff the MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record and explain how it could be deployed to everyone in America at an annual cost that would be less than the cost of one EMR system in a large hospital. At that time, I had no idea that the points raised in my presentation would become Page One of The New York Times the following Wednesday, less than one week later.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/business/a-digital-shift-on-health-data-swells-profits.html?_r=0)
While in Washington, Lorsch was also asked to attend a meeting with Representative Dana Rohrabacher regarding the plight of Dr. Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani physician that verified Osama bin Laden’s location for the United States. Today, Dr. Afridi is in a Pakistan prison sentenced to 33 years, abandoned, and reportedly being tortured. As a result of that meeting, Lorsch began a campaign, launched in a Special Oscars® issue of The Hollywood Reporter today, and at www.FreeAfridi.com. The campaign appeals for the release of Dr. Afridi by asking that the celebrities attending the Oscars® share a moment of their limelight to help draw attention to America’s abandoned hero.
“After making numerous presentations on behalf of MyMedicalRecords, where I requested support for PHRs, this was the first time that I left Washington believing that the value of a cost-effective, patient-controlled Personal Health Record was being embraced. That includes previous meetings and presentations to former HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, as well as Congressional Representatives including senior staff members in the office of The Honorable Ted Kennedy, as well as ONC staff and National Coordinators for Health IT David J. Brailer, M.D. and David Blumenthal, M.D.,” Lorsch added.
The briefing also emphasized the point that without standardization, the current HIT infrastructure did not allow a level playing field for small businesses competing with larger health IT equipment and system providers who dominate more than two-thirds of the marketplace. Information included in the briefing also covered how contractual terms from larger EMR systems are written to discourage hospitals from using other vendors which is counter to requirements of standardization and interoperability.
MMR’s technology specifically addresses the issues of interoperability while provisioning a comprehensive Personal Health Record to the patient. The Company offers solutions for patients, physicians and hospitals that seamlessly connect along the lines of the government’s stated goal of interoperability and empowering patients, providing access to their health information in a PHR. MMRGlobal also has an extensive healthcare IT patent portfolio, which includes seven U.S. patents: Nos. 8,301,466; 8,352,287; 8,352,288; 8,121,855; 8,117,646; 8,117,045; and 8,321,240. The MMR Patent Portfolio includes nearly 400 claims as well as additional applications and continuation applications. The patents involve inventions pertaining to Personal Health Records, Patient Portals and other Electronic Health Record systems. MMR also has been granted patents and has other pending applications in countries of commercial interest including Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Israel, and European nations.
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010, Tel. 310-476-7002
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature, including, without limitation, intellectual property enforcement actions, infringement claims or litigation, intellectual property licenses, and 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,” “potential,” “intend,” “offer,” “development,” “if,” “negotiate,” “when,” “begun,” “believe,” “achieve,” “will,” “estimate,” “expect,” “maintain,” “plan,” and “continue,” or the negative of these words. Actual outcomes and results of operations and the timing of selected events may differ materially from the results predicted, and any reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Such statements are necessarily based on assumptions and estimates and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the possible invalidity of the underlying assumptions and estimates and possible changes or developments in economic, business, industry, market, legal and regulatory circumstances and conditions and actions taken or omitted to be taken by third parties, including customers, suppliers, sources, business partners, potential licensees, competitors and legislative, judicial and other governmental authorities and officials. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: unexpected outcomes with respect to intellectual property enforcement actions, claims of intellectual property infringement and general intellectual property litigation; our ability to maintain, develop, monetize and protect our patent portfolio for both the Company’s health IT and biotechnology intellectual property assets in the U.S. and internationally; the timing of milestone payments in connection with licensing our intellectual property; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; changes in our relationships with our licensees; 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; risks related to the current uncertainty and instability in financial and lending markets, including global economic uncertainties; the timing and volume of sales and installations; the length of sales cycles and the installation process; the market’s acceptance of new product and service introductions; competitive product offerings and promotions; changes in government laws and regulations including the 2009 HITECH Act and changes in Meaningful Use and the 2010 Affordable Care Act; future changes in tax legislation and initiatives in the healthcare industry; undetected errors in our products; the 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; risks associated with recruitment and retention of key personnel; other litigation matters; uncertainties associated with doing business internationally across borders and territories; and additional risks discussed in the Company’s filings with the 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.
Tags: afridi, Bob Lorsch, Dana Rohrabacher, Dr Afridi, EHR, free afridi, HIT, Kira Lorsch, Kira Reed, Lorsch, MMR, mmrf, MMRGlobal, MyESafeDepositBox, Osama Bin Laden, Oscar, Personal Health Records, PHR
In Order to Keep Life Exciting, You Must Take a Few Risks to Reap the Rewards
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
Being CEO of a company is anything but boring. Who would have thought that each $2,000 invested as founders’ capital into a publicly traded company which I co-founded and ran, would someday be worth ten million dollars in only three years, as it did. It proves the adage that good things are worth waiting for, and it looks like a similar story awaits at MMRGlobal. Who would have thought that MMR would evolve into a Company owning a portfolio of Health IT and Biotech assets valued at as much as a billion dollars, not including the value of patents in twelve additional countries http://michaelbass.com/PDF/Patent_Valuation.pdf .
For those who have been there and supported the Company since the beginning in 2005, thank you. As we head into the 2013 Super Bowl weekend the one thing not to bet against is the future of Health IT and MMR’s role in it.
What keeps my life exciting is that MyMedicalRecords has only just begun. That’s because the Meaningful Use requirements that mandate patients receive online access to their Personal Health Information takes effect in 2014.
MMR is a company that took a big risk fostering ideas that were hatched before their time. And there are advantages to being the early first mover. We benefited with great inventions that resulted in 7 US patents, plus continuation patents and pending patents, and more patents in countries around the world, with nearly 400 U.S claims, and hundreds more internationally. In fact, MMR has additional patents issued, pending and applied for in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Israel, Japan and South Korea. If MMR were in a Master Charge commercial, its intellectual property would be described as PRICELESS!
Working with legal counsel, we have spent the past year pursuing license agreements and strategic relationships for the use of MMR’s Health IT patents and other Intellectual Property. The industry is recognizing the value of our IP and the Company has already entered into licensing and strategic business relationships.
We believe our patents increase the bar, making it difficult for hospitals, physician groups, healthcare professionals and vendors of Personal Health Records and patient portals to sell their products and services without infringing on MMR’s IP.
And while MMR owns a significant portfolio of health information technology IP, the Company also owns biotech assets, samples and patents created at a cost of more than $100 million and which are already the subject of a $13 million license agreement with a major biotech company.
Meanwhile, the next 30 days promise to be one of the most exciting periods in MMR’s history. On February 10th I am scheduled to attend a series of major customer meetings in Pennsylvania and MMR is hosting a dinner for carriers and payers representing more than 100 million lives.
On the 11th and 12th I attend meetings in Washington DC with representatives from Congress to discuss the use and effectiveness of more than $10 billion in paid out stimulus monies and other opportunities to improve care and reduce costs in preparation for future hearings. While there, I also plan on meeting with affinity groups representing seniors, emergency preparedness and other existing association clients of MMR.
Then, it’s two days in New York, where the Company will be telling its story to institutional investors and entertainment conglomerates interested in incorporating interactive health with broadcast and online programming.
Then back to Los Angeles to prepare for HIMSS 2013, which starts March 3rd in New Orleans to more than 40,000 projected attendees and is featuring a keynote address by President Clinton http://www.himssconference.org/. I am proud to be part of a company that participates in the future of healthcare today. Although it’s too late to bet on the Super Bowl, it’s not too late to bet on the Future of Health IT.
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010
www.mmrglobal.com
Follow me on Twitter @BobLorschTweets
Tags: Affordable Care Act, Bob Lorsch, Electonic Health Record, Electronic Medical Record, Electronic Medical Records, EMR, HIMSS, Kira Reed, mmrf, MMRGlobal, MMRPro, Personal Health Record, PHR
Being In The Right Place At The Right Time
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
Last Friday, my wife Kira went to sleep with a “headache.” At first I thought she was upset that I was 3 hours late for dinner after a late night of packing my office for my multi-mile marathon walks through the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. However, it did not take long to figure out she really had a headache and the flu. Then the next morning, when I woke up with fever, unable to move more than 10 feet from the bathroom, I knew that we were both bit by the bug.
In any event, with all the strength I could muster, I decided that I should still prepare for CES on Monday in case a miracle cured me and I could still go to the big show. So ritualistically, as I do on Saturdays, I went for a haircut. Not that I have a lot to cut – it’s just that when you have as little hair as I do it deserves the very best. So off I went, barely able to hold my head straight in Koby’s chair.
During my haircut, I began to reminisce about nearly 40 years of working the CES show for advertising and sales promotion clients, as well as my own companies. I thought about all the nights in the Las Vegas hospitality suites and the girls, The Knobs Knowledgeable Knob Knowers program I created for stereo maker Wintec, and the girls. I remembered the 50’s Diners with the singing dancing waitresses that I built using Hollywood’s best Back To The Future sets to showcase telecommunications and decorator phone clients – and the girls. My taste buds also reminisced about the gourmet meals in The Bacchanal Room at Caesars Palace, where the girls peeled grapes and fed them sensuously to diners, the millions of Wuppees I sold as show giveaways to stick on the girls and the most successful trade show program of my career, in the 1985 COMDEX convention, where my sales promotion agency, Lorsch Creative Network, was hired by Microsoft, based on my legendary successes at CES …. and of course as my wife will not let me forget – the girls.
That last one is easiest to remember. As described in the book written by Jennifer Edstrom and Marlin Eller, Barbarians Led By Bill Gates, as a “marketing mastermind,” in 1983 I got the call from Rowland Hanson, Microsoft VP Marketing, who said, Microsoft wants to own Las Vegas and own the COMDEX show when we launch Windows. I said “What’s a Microsoft?” He explained he was launching this software thing called Windows 1.0 and wanted everyone in town for COMDEX to know that the “Windows” were opening BIG. COMDEX was the equivalent of CES for the fledgling computer industry at that time.
In any event, as the book says, when people arrived in Vegas they were awestruck. There was not a taxi in town without Windows signage. The Wuppies were redesigned from having antenna to sporting mouse ears to celebrate the introduction of the “Mouse,” while I personally went from hotel bell stand to bell stand tipping housekeeping to change 20,000 pillow cases (at that time there were only 20,000 rooms) to a pillowcase with a Windows Lullaby silkscreened on the cases.
And as the final Coupe de Gras, we closed as big as we opened after hosting the first trade show concert featuring Glen Campbell in a free Rhinestone Cowboy (boots and all) show for attendees, celebrating in Las Vegas for COMDEX. Campbell stayed for the entire soiree and standing next to the world’s soon to be most famous computer geek, he said…”I just wanted to welcome y’all here for the Microsoft party and I want you to know this is my good buddy, Bill Gates.”
The crowd exploded, dancing and laughing all night, but the party and the show were no joke. In an initial survey of COMDEX attendees arriving in Las Vegas, 10% of those polled hadn’t even heard of Microsoft. When Hanson’s team conducted an exit poll, the public perception of Microsoft had grown to 90% in one week. It’s amazing what you can do when you are willing to take some risk and think out of the box. Of course it helps to have an unlimited budget.
Then, four years ago, when I thought my CES days were over, I heard about healthcare emerging in CES. I went to check out the exhibits in the show referred to as Consumer Connected Health. In the last four years, that group of exhibitors has grown from a handful of booths to an entire pavilion of consumer health electronic products and companion services, with what appears to be hundreds of booths showing something to do with health and fitness.
And despite my flu, thinking only 110% of the public company shareholders of MMRF, I slogged the 2 miles (4 round trip) from the Las Vegas Hotel lobby through the Convention Center to walk the show with the other 150,000 attendees. For the second year in a row, MMRGlobal exhibited in the show as part of the Alcatel- Lucent and ngConnect Connected Health booth next to all the biggies, Verizon, Qualcomm and a ton of other huge players with booths the size of Lorschland.
MMR is on the verge of becoming part of healthcare and my CES history, launching a collection of Wellness & Health IT at work packages to improve the quality of lives. The Company was part of a complete, automated, connected health demonstration, featuring MMR’s Patented MyMedicalRecords.com Personal Health Record. The demonstration showed how MMR connects patients and their doctors in ways that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago.
It was all about Being In The Right Place At The Right Time. I had so much adrenaline pumping in my veins, my flu bug got squashed. I walked miles through the convention center and talked to all the companies relevant to MMR’s PHR products and services. I did demonstrations, I shared the news about the company’s patents and intellectual property, I attended meetings where we discussed how to integrate with everything, including the HAPIfork.
I shook hands (using my Purell Sanitizer, of course) and met dozens of new health players, arranging follow-ups (at their request) to work together in 2013. I also continued my networking with the giants, including Verizon & Qualcomm, where we have been working on formalizing strategic relationships for years. Clearly, 2013 is not only the year of the Snake, it’s the year of eHealth and Health IT.
After a less than two-day whirlwind show, I was thankful that I went for a haircut, or I would have never reminisced and remembered how important it is to be in the Right Place at The Right Time.
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010
www.mmrglobal.com
www.mymedicalrecords.com
Follow me on Twitter at BobLorschTweets
Tags: 2013, and ng Connect and Alcatel-Lucent., Bob Lorsch, CES, MMR, mmrf, MMRGlobal, mymedicalrecords, MyWellnessBuddy, Personal Health Record, Personal Health Records, PHR, Vitalae Corporate Services with MyVitaLink
We All Learned Some Things In 2012 We Can Remember As We Move Forward Into 2013.
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
Shortly before the end of 2011 I published a Blog entitled “Perspective, Use It Or Lose It,” you can read it at http://blog.mmrglobal.com/2011/12/. It talks about my belief system of how moving one foot in front of the other gets you to the finish line when you enjoy the journey, not the destination.
Although it’s only been a little more than a year since we were awarded our first two U.S. health IT patents, I had no idea that we would end 2012 with a total of five and with over 300 claims protecting the intellectual property covering features and benefits of our MyMedicalRecords.com Personal Health Record. At the same time, our patent prosecution efforts continued in 12 additional countries and we began to launch our PHR’s in China.
While the Company continued to receive more patents in health IT, it became clear that they could be relevant to any healthcare professional that plans on meeting Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements. According to the U.S. government, starting in 2014, all Americans are to be given timely access to a PHR.
As I look back on 2012, we started the year focusing on our plan to continue selling PHR’s direct to consumers, employers and associations. Throughout the year, we began the process of integrating numerous programs to seniors, emergency clinics, animal lovers, benefit and affinity groups and other early stage telemedicine providers. Then in January, we also started approaching mass marketers and pharmacy chains, offering a Prepaid Personal Health Record Card at retail. We launched it at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
At CES we also showcased our MyMedicalRecords.com service, as a telemedicine portal in the ng Connect booth. Ng Connect is a consortium of leading-edge technology companies sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent. Through the ng Connect program, MMR has begun interacting with companies around the world interested in providing our PHR as the last mile to their local 4G telemedicine solutions like the Alcatel Lucent Connected Medicine Initiative at http://connectedmed.com/. Next week, we will again join ng Connect and Alcatel-Lucent for a second consecutive year at CES, demonstrating MyMedicalRecords.com as a connected telemedicine portal.
On the biotech side, MMR received two additional patents for our anti-CD20 antibodies and B-Cell vaccine in Mexico. We also received a patent in Mexico for our Personal Health Record health IT service offerings. As a result of the Company’s intellectual property portfolio, we have already received more than one million dollars in license fees and signed numerous biotech and health IT licensing agreements which already call for payments in excess of 40 million dollars over the next four years.
In early February, Spalding Surgery Center of Beverly Hills began going paperless using MMRPro. This was a big deal for them and for us because it proved that MMRPro, our signature document management and scanning solution, had a place in hospitals, group practices and surgery centers. Having installed MMRPro systems nationwide, the Company ended 2012 with a pipeline of more than 17 million dollars’ worth of MMRPro system sales being delivered over the next three years.
When you look at the public markets last year, we have never seen a time when there is so much evidence of the value of patents. In 2013 my priority will be a focus on leveraging that value by expanding the number of organizations that license our patents and other IP.
MMR already has EMR and PHR licensees connected to more than 35,000 physicians. We have spent the last six months sending notices and making presentations to organizations representing more than 1,000 hospitals and hundreds of other types of healthcare professionals in an effort to create licensing opportunities.
In 2013, the Company plans on expanding its list of licensees to include PHR providers, hospitals, surgery centers, veterinarians, universities, nursing organizations, senior care providers, drug manufacturers, governments, radiologists, dentists, wellness providers, retailers, chiropractors and group practices. The Company also intends on identifying its licensing opportunities beyond the U.S., Australia and China to make our way into the many other international markets where the Company holds patents and that are dealing with the modernization of their healthcare system.
I look forward to 2013 being the year in which all those who have supported MMR by sweat equity or financially will see rewards by being in the right place at the right time “The Future of Healthcare Today.”
As the headline says, we all learned something in 2012 and I will use the “life training” in 2013. Happy New Year!
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010
www.mmrglobal.com
Follow me on Twitter at BobLorschTweets
How Valuable Can Patent Rights Really Be?
Posted by Robert Lorsch | Filed under Posts by Robert Lorsch
In August of this year, two separate billion dollar verdicts for patent infringement were handed down. Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in a patent infringement suit against Samsung related to the iPhone and Monsanto was awarded $1 billion in a patent infringement lawsuit against DuPont related to genetically engineered agricultural seed.
One of the questions being debated in the legal community and the media is whether a patent portfolio can have a billion dollar value. Most experts believe the answer is yes based on the way patent damages are calculated.
Patent damages are compensatory and meant to remedy the loss due to infringement. There are two ways that patent infringement damages may be calculated monetarily. The first by awarding a hypothetical reasonable royalty and the second through the calculation of lost profits. Under either of these approaches the idea is to compensate the patent holder by placing them in the position they would have been in if an infringement had never occurred.
Over the past year, MMRGlobal’s subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc., has been awarded five patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Patent Nos. 8,121,855; 8,117,646; 8,117,045; 8,301,466 and 8,321,240, with similar patents issued and/or pending in twelve other countries. In addition, MMR has hundreds of pending claims involving Personal Health Records and features included in Electronic Medical Records systems in the U.S.
Although reasonable royalty calculations look to industry standard rates for the technology, in most cases there is no industry standard. As a result, courts often turn to a “hypothetical negotiation” to determine an amount a patent owner would have received if it had licensed the patent to the infringer in an arm’s length licensing relationship. With health IT projected to be a hundred billion dollar industry fueled by tens of billions in incentives that “hypothetical negotiation” could result in a big number.
The lost profit damage calculation is not so hypothetical. Instead, it is an approximation of the profits that the patent owner lost due to the presence of the infringer’s product(s) in the marketplace. This is essentially based on lost sales that the patent holder would have had if no infringing products were on the market. The lost profits calculation can include what is called the “entire market value rule.” This rule permits the patent owner to include as lost revenue separate non-patented components that are typically sold along with the patented product. If that were applied to MMR’s patents, that could be a really big number based on a really big market.
In order to make a belief into a reality, we need to keep thinking out of the “BOX” while placing one foot in front of the other regardless of the obstacles that appear in the way. Then one day we find ourselves ringing the bell on the New York Stock Exchange and the answer to how to do it appears in front of us. When I started MMR in 2005 I believed it could be the most successful venture of my life. At that time, I did not know how I would get there because there is never certainty in something that has not happened yet. Through the inner voice of natural knowing I simply knew I could. So I started thinking out of the “BOXES” which became the four corners of many pieces of paper called patent applications. Now it appears the resultant patents (and pending applications) should help get us through to the most successful venture of my life.
Robert H. “Bob” Lorsch, CEO, MMRGlobal
4401 Wilshire Blvd., 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010
www.mmrglobal.com
Follow me on Twitter at BobLorschTweets
Edited from an article by Jonathan L. Kennedy of McKee, Voorhees & Sease
Tags: mmrf, MMRGlobal, Robert Lorsch
