Articles and Blogs

Yesterday (10/4/2012), in a letter from House Republican leaders to HHS, House Republican leaders expressed serious concern regarding the Stage 2 Meaningful Use program and requested HHS to take the following action: Immediately suspend the distribution of incentive payments until universal interoperable standards are promulgated by HHS; Increase what is expected of Meangingful Users... READ MORE

On September 24, the mHealth Task Force, released its recommendations to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which recommends greater FCC involvement in mobile health and greater coordination with the FDA, ONC, HHS and other federal agencies. READ MORE

On September 7, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected a defendant’s attempt to enforce an arbitration clause contained in and presented to the plaintiffs only in unsolicited emails following the plaintiffs’ alleged online enrollment in the defendant’s service.  (HYPERLINK TO OPINION)  The defendant argued that the plaintiffs assented to... READ MORE

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) released this week a report , “The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”) released this week a report summarizing the discussion and key findings from the Behavioral Health Roundtable held on July 24 about the adoption of health information technologies among... READ MORE

On Wednesday (September 19) from 1 – 2:30 EDT, the National eHealth Collaborative University will host a free program focused on the challenges of authentication and user identification, as well as patient privacy, the role of EHRs and HIEs in providing consistent medical care, and the implications for data security and privacy. Please visit... READ MORE

Golden Hour Data Systems, Inc. holds U.S. Patent No. 6,117,073 (“the ’073 patent”) for an integrated emergency medical transportation database system.  In March of 2009, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found that inequitable conduct has been committed, based upon the pre-TheraSense1 standard, and concluded that the ’073 patent was unenforceable.  See 2:06-cv-00381 at Document... READ MORE

On August 16, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down its opinion in the case of Ass’n for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (No. 2010-1406) (see PDF here). At issue in this case was whether Myriad Genetics, Inc.’s claims for certain compositions of matter (isolated DNA... READ MORE

An order issued on July 31, 2012 by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in Gross v. Symantec Corporation found that the California Uniform Commercial Code applicable “sales” of “goods” does govern, despite the fact that the plaintiff downloaded the licensed software in question from the Internet. See 3:12-cv-00154-CRB;... READ MORE

The 2012 Consumer Health IT Summit will be held on September 10, 2012 from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm EDT at Hubert H. Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C.  Topics of discussion will include announcements about new policies and federal initiatives, creative approaches to motivate and support consumer engagement in health, and compelling consumer tools... READ MORE

In a recent Public Notice the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) seeks to develop a more robust record in the pending Rural Health Care reform rulemaking, particularly with regard to the proposed Broadband Service Program (“BSP”). Through the FCC’s Universal Service Fund Program (“USFP”), the FCC has funded (on an eighty-five percent (85%) basis) infrastructure... READ MORE