Hospitals reduce medical errors and improve care with handheld technologies

Research Triangle Park, NC; August 6, 2002 - MercuryMD, a company that integrates hospital data and delivers patient information to clinicians' handheld devices, today announced its ActiveLaunch feature. Developed from hospitals' need for a system that could serve as a data gateway to other handheld applications, ActiveLaunch enables clinicians to reduce medical errors and improve patient care by allowing access to information residing in multiple handheld applications, while remaining in the context of a specific patient.

Brandy Hicks, a clinical pharmacist using MData at a 1200-bed hospital system affirms, "I use MData in my clinical practice every day. While reviewing my patients' medication orders in MData, I can launch directly to a particular entry within my drug reference application. With this information at my fingertips, I can identify any potentially harmful drug interactions more quickly - minimizing the chance of a serious medication error.

"MData creates a foundation by which specific patient data is securely delivered from a hospital's information system to multiple applications on a clinician's handheld device," commented Alan Ying, Chief Executive Officer of MercuryMD. "With this functionality, MData users can make more informed clinical decisions at the point-of-care - helping to decrease errors and improve care."

In addition to helping in the prevention of adverse drug events, MData's ActiveLaunch feature assists clinicians in optimizing revenue by interoperating with charge-capture applications.

"When I launch directly into my charge-capture application from a patient's record within MData, the patient's name, medical record number, and room number automatically populate the appropriate fields in my charge-capture program. I save time by eliminating a lot of extra stylus tapping - helping me to not only capture my CPT codes, but to do it faster," commented Dr. Jay Wyatt, the Director of Trauma at a five-hospital system.

William Lawson, MercuryMD's Chief Technology Officer, explains, "Our ActiveLaunch technology allows MData to act as a neutral, impartial data-conduit. While providing secure and stable access to patients' clinical information, MData is now able to pass data to secure handheld applications - creating value for hospitals and end users."

About MercuryMD

MercuryMD's MData™ Enterprise System integrates hospital data and delivers patient information directly to clinicians' handheld devices enabling doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other healthcare professionals to have anytime access to current and comprehensive clinical data. This data can include up-to-date patient census lists, demographics, laboratory results, diagnostic reports, medication lists and transcribed reports. MData enables hospitals to enhance patient care, decrease medical errors and shorten length of stay by improving clinical workflow and efficiency. Over 13 hospital systems representing over 30 hospitals rely on MData today. For more information visit our web site at http://www.mercurymd.com or call 919-806-1700.

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CONTACT:
Jennifer Porter
MercuryMD, Inc.
Jennifer.Porter@MercuryMD.com
919/806-1700