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The email you want, when you want™
Mamomail has an innovation in handling
and delivery of email communication. Its methodology and functionalities will
enable new value added email service to potentially every email user. We have
identified a significant stated and timely need and opportunity in healthcare
for our unique approach and solution. We have two uses for our solution. The first is the traditional personal
messaging and communication. Here we will enable secure HIPAA compliant
messaging and exchanging of PHI records between the providers, physicians and
the patients via email. This is the need being addressed by the Direct
Project and other secure email services such as Zixmail. However, we will
improve on this traditional personal messaging and communication with our new
special “handling and delivery” functions and features and our special secure
separate mailbox method. The second is something that the industry
has not thought of yet, even the Direct Project. Here, we have a new way to
for physicians and systems to exchange HL7 data directly with another EHR
system over the email protocol. This enables email to be a substitute to FTP and direct
connectivity. Direct connectivity is the current method utilized by EHRs to connect
to other EHRs, the HIEs and RHIOs systems. It is hierarchical, centralized
and requires complex configuration. The current encryption and authentication
methods such as Direct and Zixmail are designed and intended for only secure
transport of record and personal communication. Whereas, the Mamomail system
to system solution will enable HL7 data to be exchanged over email and to be
seamlessly extracted and integrated by the receiving system, just as if it
can via FTP or direct connection. This is the first EHR system to
EHR system exchange and automated integration of HL7 data via email to result
in an email based many to many, system to system, secure data exchange and
transport solution. This is an email based HIPAA compliant system to system healthcare data exchange which can be
substitute and complement to the current data transport methods of FTP and
direct connectivity and the centralized model of HIEs and RHIOs. HL7 is a
text file. There may be instances of sending HL7 document via secure email,
such as Zixmail. But to our knowledge there
currently is not a coordinated effort or systemized method to send clinical
information via email. We have
additional methods to improve on the traditional email communication and messaging.
We have new email identification and handling instructions
method that offers automated sorting, special handling and delivery actions,
and other various control over the message at the destination for the email
and its attachments. The need for enabling patient data exchange
from point to point or EHR system to EHR system is one of the top current
healthcare issues and is also being addressed by the ONC and the industry via
the Direct
Project (but requires the use of the ISP’s address and email storage
until retrieval). The Mamomail system can be particularly useful and
effective for small practices and to communicate to out of network
physicians. Also, our methods can be used for physician
and/or payer to patient email communication. We use the same system to system
protocols for personal messaging - whether from payer to practice, from the
office to the physician’s mobile or for communication between the physician
and patient (either direct to the patient’s PHR, where it can be
automatically integrated similarly as if to an EHR, or to a secure HIPAA
compliant mailbox on the patient’s email client) and even for instance and
data gathering by the public agencies. Therefore as our method can be applied both
to system and personal messaging, it may be the most technically versatile
email solution in healthcare. Further, it has a novel direct marketing, a new
non-intrusive, revenue model which will substantially lower its cost to the
users. How: At the sending EHR’s interface,
the physician would select the healthcare records and data to be sent, enter
destination email address(s), and optionally add special handing instructions
to the email. The Mamomail software will then encrypt, add signature and send
the email and its attachments to the destination system where they are
authenticated, filtered and sorted to secure and separate mailboxes, where the
additional handling instructions are acted upon. Then the recipient EHR system (or
PHR, PM, etc.) can automatically and with full confidence extract the
information and integrate into its database. The email and the attachments
are handled and delivered HIPAA compliant. Mamomail does not store the data
and records, instead it focuses on the mailbox to mailbox delivery - it is
like a “secure smart self-guiding envelope” or like the mailman that provides
additional special handing and delivery services per the sender-instructions
on the envelope. The
Mamomail innovation is the use of the code-set tags to result in positive
failsafe identification and handling instructions, and the separation of its
emails to separate mailboxes. It is implemented at the client and the server
level. This simple movement out of the general inbox (for EHR system emails)
and out of the personal inbox (for the personal messaging) is minor and
seemingly incremental; however it makes all the difference. It results in a
clear and failsafe separation from the open and general email channel into a private
and value added channel where there is a responsible and vested interested
party to assure the integrity of the channel. Within a private value added
channel and space, a host of value added, fee based service can be provided
that is not possible in an open public email channel. The differences with existing models are
that: we are true end to end delivery service and do not have the
responsibility to store for later retrieval by the intended recipients; we
use the given email address of the users and add our protocol is on top of
existing protocols and thus essentially no user configuration* is required
other than installing our plugin at the user’s email client or at the email
server. (*Some configuration is required for EHR systems, such as to its APIs.)
Also, (for personal messaging)
we offer new encryption service model where instead of require the user to
manually decrypt and authenticate, all
emails in the Mamomail mailbox(s) are automatically decrypted and
authenticated. The user does not have to do anything. The emails intended for the
recipient EHR will be sorted by the Mamomail software/plugin directly to the
recipient’s EHR. E.g., the sender can use the physician’s or practice email
address, however, it will have a special “HL7 data” tag which will be
recognized by the Mamomail software and sorted to the EHR system. The
recipient will not see the email and the Hl7 attachment until it is
integrated – all this will be done in the background, just like FTP and
direct connection. In another example, a payer can send a billing related
email with a “Billing tag” and it can be sorted to the physician’s PM system
or to the office manager account. Our novel direct marketing model
will defray the cost of the system. Targeted emails are delivered to the
separate mailboxes and not the personal or private inbox of the physician.
Thus the marketing emails are not displayed like banner ads nor dropped into
the personal inbox, but is held in a discreet mailbox until the user chooses
to view them. Actually, this discreetness will become a service to the
physicians and the practice staff – as they will control the time and place
to engage with the content and where the content will have to be relevant and
useful to them, saving them time and effort. Concept
and Method - Intuitive, Cost Effective, and Versatile: The use of
a private protocol for the management of emails, based
on special codes sets attached to the email body that results in the positive
identification and special handling instructions of such emails and their
separation from the general email for delivery to the system’s secure,
dedicated and purposed mailboxes. In other words: Senders add tags
to the emails and at the delivery, the emails are authenticated, and handled
per the tags and sorted to the separate mailboxes and any special handling
instructions are acted upon. The key is
this separation. This simple movement out of the general email space and the
personal inbox, into a private value added mailbox, allows for a push
communication email service to provide end to end value added service of
responsibility and integrity in email and any other additional valued added
actions. Broadly, in
terms of security, the separate mailbox model allows for a service to monitor
each and every email in its system, and the behavior of emails in its
mailboxes and is a small advance the email security art (for the common
consumer user). The separation itself adds extra security. The system can
monitor for virus and phishing penetrations and automatically contain or
delete it from the mailboxes, even after delivery; and the mailbox itself
acts as an additional security layer to reduce cross contamination. These result in a smart and
encrypted email envelope and a controlled access, value added, integrity
assured, email network where a variety of additional value added
communication service and functions can be provided which is not possible or
practical in the open email system. (Analogy: Even though we use the given
email address of the recipients, our emails “have nothing to do” with the
general email filtering, delivery rules, and display anymore than priority
overnight mail has with the general postal mail.) This virtual network-conduit
over email is to be used for both secure data exchange and personal
communication. Its implementation and services is to be supported by senders
of paid content who will derive new benefits and communication efficiencies
from such end to end valued added and secure email channel. It offers a new model for secure
push communication over email by enabling a failsafe positive identification
and controlled access to system guaranteed secure mailboxes vs. the heuristic
algorithm filtering to defend the open personal inbox. In this model, the
emails would not be delivered to the mailboxes without authentication and
integrity of each email assured. Intuitive
and User Friendly: We use the users given email addresses and
the same protocols whether for system integration to the EHR, PM, PHR systems
or whether among patients and providers. We have developed a very user
friendly interface for the personal email client which
targets the mass level adoption. This intuitive interface can be
a key factor to help solve the challenge of making encrypted and
authenticated email ubiquitous. The security and free
email encryption applications are all around us, but even as we, the technology
savvy users do not routinely use them, the more the barrier for common users.
The key is to make security routine and seamless. E.g., by making it
usability at the “lowest common denominator” level and only incrementally
more complex from the personal box, i.e., “if you can access the inbox, you
can have free encrypted and authenticate email service”. “We didn’t create secure email, but we make
it routine and commonplace via very easy access and
interface.” Versatile: To be used
for personal communication or system-to-system data exchange; and for senders
to have special handling and delivery actions on the email and its
attachments at the destination (analogous to the special postal mail
services). The technology and protocol sits on top of existing layers, is
same for data exchange and personal communication, thus we offer an intuitive
and very distributable solution. Cost
Effective and Fair: It is free for consumers and paid content
(CRM notices, marketing, informational) supported for healthcare providers,
based on a novel and new marketer-consumer engagement
method that we call Opt-in Mailbox, where the deliveries are to discreet
and separate mailboxes, and not to the personal inbox or banner displays,
whereupon the users then themselves choose (or opt-in) to view (or not), and
thus the burden is forever on the system to deliver relevant and useful
marketing content. (Revenue Support Areas: The EOB
notices may cost the insurance industry several billion per year, and once
patients are comfortable receiving healthcare information by email, we can
deliver EOBs by email. In US direct marketing, the direct mail spend is some
$47 billion a year, of which 38% or nearly $20 billion is postage alone.
Also, we have the huge volume of the usual first class CRM notices that are
sent by first class mail.) |
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© Copyright 2009 -
2011. Mamomail Inc. |
(Updated:
7.17.11) |
