The Doctors Company Names First Recipient of its Award for the Advancement of Patient Safety

7 August 2005

The Doctors Company is honoring Dr. Fotsch for his role in the development and implementation of the Health Care Notification Network and the iHealthRecord, a patient-controlled, secure and interactive personal health record that also provides automated patient education and allows secure information sharing between patients and physicians, including hospitals, clinics and emergency departments. The service is designed to increase the quality of patient care, facilitate medication compliance and disease management, and improve patient safety through physician-directed disease management and same day notification of FDA warnings and recalls.

“I am pleased to receive this award and commend The Doctors Company for its continued efforts to increase public awareness of both the importance of health care information technology that improves patient safety, and the need for effective national medical liability reforms, each of which are necessary to resolve the nation's medical malpractice insurance crisis,” said Dr. Fotsch.

“When fully implemented throughout the health system and integrated among doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies, electronic medical records are likely to reduce medical errors through the seamless exchange of current patient information,” said David Troxel, M.D., medical director for The Doctors Company. “We believe the iHealthRecord is an important step toward achieving this national goal, providing the technology and infrastructure necessary to make electronic medical records a reality and putting an end to the outdated practice of “clipboard care”. We applaud Dr. Fotsch's accomplishments in a major initiative to improve medical care and promote patient safety in the United States.”

Dr. Edward Fotsch's professional experience spans healthcare, information technology, and business commerce. Fotsch has more than ten years of experience in the clinical practice of medicine and was the founding chairman of a Northern California Independent Practice Association. He authored Planning and Implementing Your Healthcare Internet Strategy, published in 1996, and has also been published frequently in the area of online professional liability. Dr.Fotsch graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed his postgraduate work at the University of California, San Francisco.

He currently resides in Sausalito, California and is the CEO of Medem Inc., the company founded in 1999 by six of the nation's leading national medical societies and the American Medical Association to deliver the premier secure online physician-patient communication network in the country.

Source: I-Newswire.com

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