About Medem, Inc.
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How do the medical societies benefit from the creation of Medem?
Partnering with Medem is an opportunity for medical societies to provide their members with innovative, Web-based tools and services. ,
This partnership supports a primary goal of the founding organizations which is to strengthen the physician-patient relationship by creating a platform of trust, based on accessible, valuable information and secure communications.
Medem also provides an additional vehicle for medical societies to educate the public as the trusted source of health care information.
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How will patients find their physician's individual practice site?
Medem's own Physician Finder and a growing number of society and health plan online provider directories are pointing to Web sites on the Medem Network. This enables quick access for patients choosing a doctor.
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How will Medem succeed in improving the physician-patient relationship?
Medem puts physicians back in the center of the physician-patient relationship by giving them interactive tools to serve as an accessible, central source for credible, comprehensive medical information and care for their patients.
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What is Medem's privacy policy?
The confidentiality and trust between physician and patient is of paramount importance to Medem.
As a result, the Medem Network is designed to support and foster the physician-patient relationship and its confidential nature. As an e-health network, Medem strives to raise the bar with respect to privacy and security, by providing physicians with the tools they need to zealously guard personal patient information.
We strive to assure patients that they can search for health care information online freely and confidentially and we support the American Medical Association's Guidelines for Medical and Health Information Sites on the Internet.
Our detailed privacy policy can be found on www.medem.com.
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The iHealthRecord
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What is an iHealthRecord and why it is a good idea to have one?
The iHealthRecord is a secure and confidential interactive personal health record provided by your physician.
This service not only stores personal health information for you and your family, it provides interactive programs that help you better understand medical conditions and medications — all at no cost to you!
You can create an iHealthRecord to manage and share your personal health information with your physician, or another caregiver in case of an emergency.
The iHealthRecord features:
- All of your medical information stored in one convenient and secure place.
- Accessibility from anywhere and at any time.
- The ability to share your iHealthRecord with family members.
- The ability to access the iHealthRecord during an emergency.
- A convenient iHealthRecord wallet card that provides emergency contact information and directions on how to access your iHealthRecord.
- Automatic enrollment in health education programs, written by medical societies and other national experts, that are specific to your medications or conditions.
- Automatic, same-day FDA product warning and recall alerts sent directly to you, based on the medications you list in your iHealthRecord
- Secure email and Online Consultation with your doctor.
- Quarterly online reminders to keep your iHealthRecord current.
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Who should have an iHealthRecord?
Everyone! While you or a family member may not have major medical conditions, there is basic health information that should be accessible at any time, from anywhere. This includes insurance information, allergies, vaccinations and emergency contact information.
In addition, the iHealthRecord provides health and wellness tips and reminders. If you or a family member takes medications or has chronic medical conditions, has been hospitalized or had surgeries, all the more reason that an iHealthRecord is needed.
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Who is using the iHealthRecord service?
Thousands of Americans have already created an iHealthRecord for themselves or for a family member. Each day, new partners such as national health plans, large medical groups and hospitals, launch programs to promote and increase adoption of the iHealthRecord within their patient communities.
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How does information in my iHealthRecord get updated?
Your iHealthRecord is something that you must own and initiate. For the record to be complete, you must contribute some information and make sure you keep it current.
Medem is building interfaces to electronic medical records in physician offices and hospitals, as well as links to allow health plans to update the iHealthRecord, but the record remains under your control. Your iHealthRecord will send you a quarterly reminder to keep the record current.
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Privacy
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Who controls the iHealthRecord and who is protecting the privacy of a patient's personal health data?
The privacy of a patient's iHealthRecord is overseen by the iHealth Alliance, a not-for-profit healthcare advisory board established to protect the interests of physicians and patients.
A patient's health information is securely stored on the Medem Network, which was founded by the American Medical Association and other leading medical societies. iHealthRecord information cannot be sold or provided to any third parties without a patient's permission.
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Is a Patient's iHealthRecord truly secure, if they can access it through the Internet?
Although a patient's medical information is available via the Internet, it is very secure. Just as online banking and online stock accounts are available via the Internet, but secure and only accessible to an individual with a unique user ID and password, the iHealthRecord's security functions in the same way.
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Who can view a patient's iHealthRecord and how do they know who has seen it?
Patients control access to their iHealthRecord and provide access privileges to doctors, family members or emergency personnel. Patients can see who has visited their iHealthRecord by using the tracking log provided by the record.
Patients are notified via email each day that someone accesses their iHealthRecord so they can monitor its use.
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How can the iHealthRecord be free to patients?
Do you sell patient data or sell advertising?
The iHealthRecord does not sell patient data nor use advertising.
The service is funded by physicians, physician groups, hospitals, health systems and others who license the service and through transaction fees paid when physicians offer Online Consultations to their patients.
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Medem's Secure Messaging Services
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What's wrong with standard email?
Standard email can pose many security problems. For example, standard email:
- Is not encrypted or authenticated.
- Can be used by anyone to access a physician if they simply know the physician's email address.
- Doesn't have "terms of service" or legal disclaimers to protect physicians.
- Can easily expose patient email addresses and identities to unintended third parties.
- Often breaches patient privacy by using employer email networks.
- Doesn't have templates or medical records features.
- Is not consistent with HIPAA or eRisk standards.
- Has not been "safety-proofed" for healthcare.
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How is Secure Messaging different from regular e-mail?
Traditional e-mail is neither authenticated nor encrypted — it's similar to sending a postcard in the U.S. mail: it can be intercepted and read by others as it travels across the Internet to its intended recipient.
Patients often use their employer-provided e-mail accounts for these communications, making the content of regular email communications the property of their employers.
Standard e-mail fails to meet the guidelines of both medical professional liability carrier eRisk Guidelines and HIPAA proposed standards.
Medem's Secure Messaging service is encrypted and confidential, so only the intended recipient can read a message.
A user ID and password are always required to view both patient and physician messages — which are stored in a secure server environment — the identities of both parties must be authenticated before messages are read.
Medem provides physicians with sample office protocols, terms of service, informed consent language, and other tools to maximize communication security and minimize your liability exposure.
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How "secure" is Medem's Secure Messaging?
Medem's Secure Messaging service is one of the safest and most confidential messaging systems available today.
Messages are stored in a secure server environment that has security procedures and firewalls in place to restrict unidentified parties from accessing the main and backup servers.
A user ID and password are always required to view both patient and physician messages. In other words, the identities of both parties — physician's office and patient — must be authenticated in order for the message to be read.
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