The judge of the Central District of California has invalidated five patent claims from an EHR vendor that claimed patent protection regarding how it hosted personal health records.
EHR vendor MyMedicalRecords filed for a patent in 2005 that claims a method of collecting, accessing and managing personal health records, according to recently filed motion for judging the invalidity of the patent.
Defendants filing the motion on invalidity of the patent include Quest Diagnostics, Walgreens, Allscripts, Empty Jar, WebMD Health Corp., and WebMD Health Services Group.
According to Judge Otis Wright's decision, "All six of these concepts [of one of the claims of the filed patent] are routine, conventional functions of a computer and server and therefore broadly and generically claim the use of a computer and Internet to perform the abstract purpose of the asserted claims," therefore rendering the concept patent-ineligible.
The decision continues, "The [patent] recites an invention that is merely the routine and conventional use of the Internet and computer with no additional specific features."
More articles on EHRs:
Waiting on the ROI: 3 lessons from health IT investments
Do scribes help or hinder EHR efficiency?
25 health IT data points on EHRs, MU, mHealth and big data