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Archive for the ‘Personal Development’ Category

The Consumption Dysfunction

Posted: March 31, 2012 at 12:53 am


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The latest reports from the Bureau of Economic Analysis on economic growth and personal income and spending have, on the surface, appeared to show improvement.

Spending is up more than expected and economic growth is clipping along at a 3% annual growth rate in the fourth quarter. That is the good news.

As we have discussed in the past the consumer is the key to this whole economic equation.

Consumption is 70% of the economy and, as long as the consumer has the ability to consume, the economy can chug along.

However, therein lies the dysfunction as well.

Today, the belief is that if the system is flooded with cheaper dollars that the near-term dysfunction of the economy can be fixed through a consumption driven recovery. The problem, however, as we just discussed, is that production must come first. Production is the real source of healthy consumption in the economy. The debt driven consumption of the 80-90's was a slow moving cancer through the economy. Debt has to be serviced which, as debt levels increased without commensurate increases in income, diverted more and more income away from savings and ultimately productive investment.

The problem is that with the media viewing data from only one month, or quarter, to the next the long term trends are being missed.

In order for consumers to continue to consume at rates high enough to support long term economic growth they need increasing wage growth to offset the effects of inflation over time. This is currently not the case. In fact wages have been stagnant and declining since October of 2010. As of today's latest read - the year over year change in real disposable incomes fell 50% from where it stood in January. Even on a monthly basis real disposable incomes fell in both January and February. Mortgage and debt payments, insurance, utilities, food and auto payments must be met every month and these are just the bare essentials that consume a very large portion of the monthly household budget.

Therein lies the obvious problem. As the rate of increase in income declines as food and energy costs rise - the deficit between income and expenses is made up with either decreased personal savings, increased debt or both. However, with credit tight, limited savings and engaged, either by force or choice, in debt deleveraging - consumers are struggling with higher food and energy prices as they try to maintain their current standard of living.

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The Consumption Dysfunction

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March 31st, 2012 at 12:53 am

Bill requires conservation, development curriculum

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JUNEAU, Alaska The chairman of the House Education Committee has proposed a bill that requires Alaska public schools develop curriculum conveying constitutional principles of resource use, development and conservation.

Rep. Alan Dick, R-Stony River, said students are getting a skewed idea of resource development, often from teachers who don't hail from Alaska and aren't familiar with the state's constitution. He said constituents district have complained that students are being taught exclusively that development is bad without learning of economic benefits and the other side of the story.

His bill, HB352, requires that curriculum conveying constitutional principles of resource use, development and conservation be developed "without regard to personal opinion."

"I want to empower citizens of Alaska so that if they feel there are things being taught in their districts that violate the constitution, they can go to their school boards," Dick said.

Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, and a committee member, said during a hearing Friday that the bill would put a burden on school districts. He said the wording of the bill makes it so districts might be required to purchase books that don't exist, and that supplementary curriculum materials might be a better solution than limiting the types of books districts can buy.

"I'm worried about unintended consequences and whether this will be applied to individual school boards and districts and how it would affect them," Seaton said. "We need to hear from them."

An opportunity for public testimony was provided Friday, but no one from the public testified.

Betsy Beardsley, environmental justice program director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said in an interview that she wants to know more about the bill before it passes.

Tim Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited, said the legislation "isn't necessarily bad as long as the pro-development themes that teachers will be required to espouse are balanced with information about how important clean water is to Alaska's world-class fisheries."

Most House committees face a tentative deadline next week to stop hearing House bills and to focus on Senate bills.

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March 31st, 2012 at 12:53 am

Affirmative Insurance Holdings Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2011 Financial Results

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ADDISON, Texas, March 30, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Affirmative Insurance Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:AFFM - News), a leading distributor and producer of non-standard personal automobile insurance policies, reported consolidated financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2011.

Gary Kusumi, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "2011 was a disappointing year for reported financial results due in large part to non-cash charges and loss development related to our Michigan business, which we exited in 2011. We made improvements in claims, underwriting, product structure and a number of other areas during the year as reflected in our core operating results. The current market environment continues to be difficult, particularly with the increase in gas prices. Increasing revenue and matching the expense base against current premium volume is our greatest challenge. The entire organization is singularly focused on executing on our initiatives to return to profitability. We recognize the challenges we must overcome and the hard work that will be necessary to achieve our financial objectives."

Operating Performance

As a result of adverse loss development in Michigan and recent premium production trends, the Company recorded a non-cash, pretax goodwill impairment charge of $140.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Significant declines in the fourth quarter of 2011 in premiums written in the markets corresponding to the recorded agency relationship compared with prior periods and forecast, as well as customer attrition rates indicated that the carrying amounts of definite-lived intangible assets were not recoverable, resulting in a non-cash impairment charge of $1.7 million.

About Affirmative

Affirmative Insurance Holdings, Inc. is a distributor and producer of non-standard personal automobile insurance policies and related products and services for individual consumers in targeted geographic markets. Non-standard personal automobile insurance policies provide coverage to drivers who find it difficult to obtain insurance from standard automobile insurance companies due to their lack of prior insurance, age, driving record, limited financial resources or other factors. Non-standard personal automobile insurance policies generally require higher premiums than standard automobile insurance policies.

The Affirmative Insurance Holdings, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3443

This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by, among other things, the use of forward-looking terms such as "likely," "typically," "may," "intends," "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "estimates," "projects," "targets," "forecasts," "seeks," "potential," , or "attempts" or the negative of such terms or other variations on such terms or comparable terminology. By their nature, these statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual future results to differ materially from those results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Do not unduly rely on forward-looking statements. They give the Company's expectations about the future and are not guarantees. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and, except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update them to reflect changes that occur after that date. For a discussion of factors that may cause actual results to differ from expectations, refer to the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011. Any factor described in this press release or in any document referred to in this press release could, by itself or together with one or more other factors, adversely affect the Company's business, earnings and/or financial condition.

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March 31st, 2012 at 12:53 am

Can Better Data End Global Poverty?

Posted: March 30, 2012 at 1:27 pm


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A leading development economist speaks on the virtues and limitations of a data-driven approach to healing the world's most intractable problems

Reuters

Do free bed nets in some countries lead to more cases of malaria? Could anti-parasite pills raise school attendance in one country and have no effect in another? How cheap does preventative care have to be for low-income families to see the doctor?

There might not be a perfect way to answer these thorny questions on a country-by-country basis. But some leading scientists think the most rigorous answer comes from what they call "randomized controlled trials."

Esther Duflo is widely recognized as the world's leading advocate of randomized controlled trials in development economics. As a methodology, RCTs have been used for over a half-century in clinical medicine, where the effect of a drug or medical procedure is confirmed or denied in scientific experiments involving control and treatment groups. The use of RCTs to address global poverty is a phenomenon of the last decade, but it has caught on with the force of a paradigm shift in economics, public policy, and other disciplines.

Last year, Duflo* and her co-conspirator at J-PAL, Abhijit Banerjee, published a book called Poor Economics: A Radical Rehinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. The book overviews much of what they have learned through RCTs and otherwise, and it stakes a larger claim against "grand universal answers" and "sweeping conclusions" about poverty. Instead, they recommend a data-driven approach that seeks specific, targeted answers to what actually works, what works better, and what works cost-effectively.

Having been trained as a physicist and an engineer, I appreciate and support Duflo's scientific approach to fighting poverty. (Full disclosure: I'm on the board of Innovations for Poverty Action, a close J-PAL partner.) Yet, reading the book, two things repeatedly came to mind: First, the best science requires theory as much as experimentation. Data without good theory is only measurement, not knowledge, and powerful theory is often sweeping. Purely as a practical matter, theory helps to sustain us when we lack data. Second, Duflo and Banerjee seem uncomfortable with their own stance against grand answers. Most of the book's chapters conclude with sections that make general pronouncements about public health, education, microfinance, and entrepreneurship, often not entirely backed up by experiment. Their final chapter, titled "In Place of a Sweeping Conclusion," nevertheless offers five broad statements about poor people worldwide.

I asked Duflo some questions about RCTs and her book over e-mail...

KT: What do you think is the greatest contribution of RCTs so far in international development?

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Can Better Data End Global Poverty?

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March 30th, 2012 at 1:27 pm

MMRGlobal Making It Happen to Report Sales Up, Gross Profit Up, Cost of Revenue Down as Heads Toward Meaningful Use in …

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LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire -03/29/12)- MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTC.BB: MMRF.OB - News) ("MMR"), a leading provider of Personal Health Records (PHRs), MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and electronic document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, plans on filing its 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2011 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, March 30, 2012 after the close of market. The Company will report increased sales, reduced costs, reduced operating expenses, increased gross profits, and decreased losses. The filing will be followed by a conference call hosted by Bob Lorsch, Chief Executive Officer, and Ingrid Safranek, Chief Financial Officer, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time / 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time (details below).

Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2011 increased by 45.9% when compared to the year ended December 31, 2010 due to an increase in MMRPro sales, which were up 105%, and biotech licensing revenues, which were up 100%. The Company also saw revenue from investment by customers in private label website development for integration of the Company's proprietary patented Personal Health Record products and services, including Chartis Insurance and E-mail Frequency. E-mail Frequency has advised the Company that it plans on rolling out PHRs to as many as one million member clients in 2012.

Cost of revenue decreased by 8.2% for the year ended December 31, 2011 when compared to the year ended December 31, 2010. Gross profit increased to 161% for year ended December 31, 2011. The Company attributes a significant portion of the decrease in costs to the elimination of certain outside service providers, the development of an internal cost-savings platform and the creation of MMRGlobal Infocom, which now provides operating technology services and website integration and support internally. The cost of revenue decreased primarily due to changes in service providers hosting the Company's products and the formation of Infocom providing services in-house, and the development of the Company's own cost-savings platform(s). As a result, the Company's operating losses were down 51%.

"As a result of meaningful use requirements under the HITECH Act, the Company believes that 2012 is the year that healthcare professionals will seriously focus on how they will offer PHRs in response to criteria that would require at least 90% of all patients with medical records on an EMR to be provided timely access to a Personal Health Record by 2014," said Mr. Lorsch.

Over the past year, the Company has experienced continued success in licensing its portfolio of patents for both biotech and health information technology. It recently had three health IT patents issued, two entitled "Method and System for Providing Online Medical Records" and one entitled "Method and System for Providing Online Records." The Company began licensing its biotech patents in 2010 and has already received $850,000. It expects to receive additional milestone payments from biotech licensing this year and significantly larger milestone payments from biotech in 2014.

The MichaelBass Group, an investment banking and strategic advisory services firm (www.michaelbass.com), issued a special report January 20, 2012 discussing the value of the Company's HIT patents, citing the global market for Personal Health Records at $19 billion, and focusing on the patents issued, pending and owned by MyMedicalRecords, Inc. (http://michaelbass.com/PDF/JAN20MMRF.pdf)

As discussed above, revenues increased by $446,660, or 45.9%, to $1,419,648 for the year ended December 31, 2011 from $972,988 for the year ended December 31, 2010. The Company believes that the other revenues which include website development and PHR integration signal a continued long-term commitment to offer the Company' products and services. Our cost of revenue decreased to $609,212 for the year ended December 31, 2011 from $663,372 for the year ended December 31, 2010.

Gross Margin increased by 57.1% for the year ended December 31, 2011, as compared to 31.8% for the similar period in 2010. Cost of revenue as a percentage of sales decreased by 8.2% and operating expenses decreased 1.0% during the same period.

General and Administrative increased by $181,193 or 4.2% in 2011, as compared to the similar period in 2010, primarily due to higher consulting fees and a non-cash increase in MMRPro amortization expenses. Sales and marketing expenses decreased by $257,502 or 9.6% in 2011, as compared to the prior period in 2010, due to a decrease in the cost of radio and TV ads. Technology development expenses were essentially equivalent to those seen in 2010.

Losses were down 51% from the prior year. The Company lost $8,884,427 of which $2,845,222 was cash and $6,039,205 non-cash compared to total losses of $17.9 million in the previous year of which $4,212,300 was cash. Cash losses were down 32.5%.

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MMRGlobal Making It Happen to Report Sales Up, Gross Profit Up, Cost of Revenue Down as Heads Toward Meaningful Use in ...

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March 30th, 2012 at 1:27 pm

"Mode One" Author to Sponsor Personal Development Workshops for Single Men

Posted: March 29, 2012 at 10:15 am


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Do you become bashful and tongue-tied when in the company of attractive women? Do you want to learn how to converse with women with more confidence? Do you want to learn the secrets of recognizing women's natural 'body language cues'? If all of the above apply to you, then you want to sign up for one of Alan Roger Currie's 'Mode One' Personal Development Workshops for Men. The first workshop is set to take place in Chicago on May 18-20, 2012.

Currie was a featured speaker at The Direct Approach Dating Summit UK that was held in London, England in November, 2010, and he was most recently the headline speaker at the The Direct Approach Dating Summit USA that was held in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 17-18, 2012. Currie's books have been read by men in twenty different countries, and many of his supporters have been asking him about sponsoring a "verbal seduction bootcamp" or something similar.

"A number of my fellow speakers at the last two Direct Dating Summit events I spoke at have their own 'bootcamps' and 'weekend workshops' that cost anywhere from $1,000 to $3,500. Ideally, I want my weekend personal development workshops to be a wee bit more affordable, but I want my participants to leave the workshop feeling like a totally new man. These workshops have been in demand for a while, and finally, I am ready to deliver," said Currie, who in 2009 taught a six-week college-level dating and relationships adult education course in Northwest Indiana entitled, "Dating for 21st Century Singles" that received rave reviews.

The Mode One Personal and Social Development Workshops will focus on improving one's public speaking skills; Improving social interactions and personal conversations with single women of interest; Clothing, grooming, and personal style tips; Learning the secrets of powerful verbal seduction skills; Strategies for improving one's eating and exercise habits; Handling harsh criticisms and negative reactions from women who are "drama queen" types; and recognizing very subtle body language signs and cues from women who may be bashful themselves.

Currie's first workshop will take place in Chicago on May 18-20, 2012. The workshop will run from 8:00pm CST on Friday until approximately 3:00pm CST on Sunday. The tentative venue is the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel. Later, Currie plans of having workshops in Austin, TX, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Bogot, Rio de Janeiro, Montreal, and a number of other cities where the demand is high.

Those men who have already purchased all three of Currie's paperbacks will receive a 10% discount on the registration fee. In addition to being a book author, Currie is also the Host of two popular talk radio podcast programs: "Upfront & Straightforward with Alan Roger Currie" (The #1 most listened to dating and relationships program on BlogTalkRadio) and "The Erotic Conversationalist."

For more information, visit http://www.modeone.net or contact weekend_workshops@modeone.net

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"Mode One" Author to Sponsor Personal Development Workshops for Single Men

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March 29th, 2012 at 10:15 am

Mobile app developers, don't forget about privacy and security

Posted: March 28, 2012 at 7:20 pm


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User experience is important when developing any mobile app but in an enterprise context, what about security?For example, if you are developing an app that stores personal information there are regulations that ask where this information resides.Depending on the industry, mobile app developers may be completely accountable if any security issues happen on an app that they develop.

To ensure that you are in full compliance to any privacy, security or regulatory questions, it is recommended that apps be developed in-house or through a partner.So do mobile app developers need to consider regulatory, security or privacy concerns in advance of mobile app development projects?

"Yes, I think that developers of mobile and Internet-connected applications need to be positively thinking about privacy and security issues, which will likely help them address any regulatory compliance issues. And this should be true whether or not the apps are intended for enterprise use", Andrew Baker, director of Service Operations with SWN Communications, says.

He adds that security is something that has to be planned and developed in advance, so that it functions effectively and costs less than a bolted-on solution.

"Whether or not an app is intended for an enterprise audience, there's a good chance it will be used by enterprise employees, or connect to enterprise infrastructure", Baker emphasizes. "The safer our applications are the better. Security needs to be built-in, rather than layered on afterwards".

Jon Stroz, anInteractive and Traditional Marketing Specialist with Accella, a mobile app development firm, agrees that, as withany software development, mobile app developers do need to worry about security and privacy concerns, especially when handling sensitive data.

"While many mobile applications and games do not handle private information, others do,especially with the proliferation of mobile payment being adopted by users and merchants", Stroz says, adding:

Sharing [information] via a mobile app requires security. A developers main concern with security should really surround the transmission of data, sending it from a mobile device to a secured server. This is especially important with financial transactions and other sensitive data. While it is the consumer's responsibility to make sure that - should their device be lost or stolen, no sensitive data will be uncovered, it is the developer's job to make sure that data is safe when being transmitted or stored in their app.

Security Breakdown

However, despite the fact that security and compliance in mobile apps should be important in the development phase, the reality is, it is not.

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Mobile app developers, don't forget about privacy and security

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March 28th, 2012 at 7:20 pm

UST Global and Vidyo Partner to Develop Customized Video Conferencing Solutions for Global 1000 Companies

Posted: March 27, 2012 at 7:53 pm


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HACKENSACK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Vidyo, Inc., the first company to deliver personal telepresence, today announced a partnership with UST Global, a leading provider of IT services and solutions for Fortune 500 and Global 1000 enterprises. UST Global plans to adopt Vidyo's personal telepresence platform as a company-wide vehicle for day-to-day internal business communications, and also use the Vidyo platform with its rich APIs to create customized retail, financial and healthcare solutions, in conjunction with its software development business. UST Global has over 8,000 employees located in the US, India, UK, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore.

We are pleased to welcome UST Global as an important new member of the Vidyo partner community and as a customer who will be using Vidyo's solution to meet their own global communications requirements to drive productivity across multiple continents," said Ashish Gupta, Vidyo's CMO and Senior VP of Corporate Development. "It is a testament to the strength of Vidyo's platform that UST Global, whose focus is on delivering innovative solutions to Global 1000 companies, has selected our platform to build Vidyo Enabled Business Processes (VEBP) for UST Global customers."

"We are excited to be the first global systems integrator to join the new Vidyo Developer Program and we believe that Vidyos technology compliments our strategy to build collaboration directly into custom applications especially mobile applications," said Tony Velleca CIO, UST Global. "Vidyo's APIs are ideal for systems integrators; no other video communications platform offers the kind of flexible architecture, level of interoperability, and technology that can affordably scale and grow with our business needs."

Vidyo's platform enables partners to expand their reach into new markets with applications that are made possible only by using Vidyo's rich APIs. Unlike video codec vendors, Vidyo provides the architecture needed to deliver high-quality video conferencing, not just an SVC codec. Building on this platform, Vidyos System Integrator partners such as UST Global can deliver innovative applications that enhance their customers business processes with HD quality video communications. Integration strategies can be customized to needs and budget with Vidyo API packages, engineering support services, and multiple levels of integration options.

About UST Global

UST Global provides IT solutions that propel businesses forward, helping CIOs build the future for their organizations. Merging industry-specific expertise with transformative thinking, UST Global delivers market-defining solutions to Global 1000 companies with speed and agility. The company is distinguished by its community of collaborative innovation, relentless commitment beyond contract, measurable accountability to current and future business outcomes, and an entrepreneurial spirit that fuels transformation. As a trusted partner to clients worldwide, UST Global uses an optimal blend of locally based senior resources and highly accomplished and cost-effective offshore teams. Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, UST Global fosters client-specific cutting-edge innovation from its state-of-the-art centers in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. For more information visit: http://www.ust-global.com

The Vidyo Difference

The Vidyo communication and collaboration platform is software-based, highly flexible and can be easily customized for individual enterprise and vertical market video conferencing needs. The patented VidyoRouter architecture introduces Adaptive Video Layering, which dynamically optimizes the video for each endpoint leveraging H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC)-based compression technology and Vidyos IP. Adaptive Video Layering eliminates the MCU and offers unprecedented error resiliency, low latency rate matching thus enabling natural, affordable, high-quality video to work over the Internet, LTE and 4G networks. The platform allows users to quickly leverage the latest hardware innovations and new consumer devices, making it uniquely attractive to partners. Vidyo has been active driving H.264 SVC and SIP videoconferencing interoperability in various standards bodies since 2005.

About Vidyo, Inc.

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UST Global and Vidyo Partner to Develop Customized Video Conferencing Solutions for Global 1000 Companies

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March 27th, 2012 at 7:53 pm

Construction BD Manager

Posted: March 26, 2012 at 8:25 pm


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Employer:

OpenField Consulting

Updated: Mar262012

Job posting bookmarked!

Overall Job Responsibilities The Business Development Manager builds market position by locating, developing, defining, negotiating, and closing business relationships.In this role, the business will be introduced to new clients in the offshore and Oil and Gas industry.New relationships will be forged with EPC firms and other design firms.With a strong personal network and brand, the Business Development Manager will successfully leverage their industry network into developing profitable business opportunities with new customers.This person will have strong closing skills, motivation for sales, prospecting skills, and sales planning experience.This role has significant job growth and career development opportunity.

Capable of creating and maintaining winning relationships!

Duties and Responsibilities Identify target opportunities before they reach the bid stage by researching industry and related events, publications, and announcements; tracking individual companies and their capital projects plans. Locate or propose potential business opportunities by contacting potential partners; discovering and exploring opportunities. Screen potential business deals by analyzing market strategies, deal requirements, potential, and financials; evaluating options; resolving internal priorities; recommending innovative win strategies such as equity investments. Develop negotiating strategies and positions by studying integration client and company strategies and operations; examining risks and potentials; estimating partners' needs and goals. Close new business deals by coordinating requirements; developing and negotiating contracts; integrating contract requirements with business operations. Protect organization's value by keeping information confidential. Update job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations. Enhance organization reputation by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.

Basic Qualifications EDUCATION/LICENSURE: BD Experience- at least 7 years with a demonstrated ability to close large projects. Degree in Engineering, Construction Management or a similar technical field

Preferred Qualifications The ideal candidate will meet basic and preferred qualifications. Preferred qualifications include:

Successfully developed a strong personal brand within the construction / oil and gas / fabrication industry Passion for articulating the Company's value proposition outside of the traditional customer base Demonstrated experience in negotiating and closing construction projects with a value of at least $20 million Ideally performed successfully in a construction project management role. Strong oral and written communications skills Ability to follow work processes, maintain close attention to detail, and meet schedules under deadline Possess solid electronic file management skills and understanding of various electronic data retrieval systems Be able to assist with development of compliance matrix, project descriptions, resumes and schedules Available to travel - 50% Have strong attention to detail and accuracy Ability to work with minimal supervision; self-motivated Superior customer service skills Ability to communicate clearly and concisely Ability to work in a team environment.

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Construction BD Manager

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March 26th, 2012 at 8:25 pm

MMRGlobal Announces Filing of Additional 186 HIT Provisional Patent Applications

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LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire -03/26/12)- MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTC.BB: MMRF.OB - News) ("MMR"), a leading provider of Personal Health Records (PHRs), MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and electronic document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals, today announced that it has filed 186 Provisional Patent Applications covering its health information technology (HIT) portfolio of products and services. The Company's intellectual property portfolio includes biotech assets acquired from its merger with Favrille, Inc. in January 2009 and its portfolio of health IT patents as a result of MyMedicalRecords, Inc.'s patent filings starting in 2005.

MMR's intellectual property includes a comprehensive portfolio of biotech and health information technology patents issued, pending, and applied for. The Company spent more than $140 million in development of the biotech assets which is comprised of patents, patient samples and other IP relating to anti-CD20 antibodies and results from the Company's FavId/Specifid idiotype vaccine trials. The Company offers these assets for license and other strategic partnerships to universities, other biotech companies, institutional investors and others.

The portfolio also includes issued patents on its MyMedicalRecords.com, MyEsafeDepositBox.com and MMRPro document imaging and management systems as well as the pending provisional patents and utility applications in the U.S. and numerous other countries around the world. According to a recent analyst report, the issued patents could be worth in excess of $300 million. The HIT portion of the IP alone has been valued at more than twenty times the Company's market cap, or which could be more than fifty cents per share not including the value of the additional provisional patent filings listed above (http://michaelbass.com/PDF/JAN20MMRF.pdf).

The Company believes that many of the 186 provisional claims could be allowed this year including both health IT and non-health IT/medical applications. These patent claims include 23 claims under 11/690,996, 35 claims under 12/204,474, 30 claims under 12/204,498, 19 claims under 13/352,045, 20 claims under 13/352,068, 15 claims under 13/352,026, and 14 claims under 13/041,809, which address the telecommunications platform, and 18 claims directed toward Electronic Health Records in Clinical Trials under 13/082,896 and 12 claims for Universal Patient Record Conversion Tool under 13/246,948.

During the time of the MMR and Favrille merger, former Favrille management had represented to MMR that its biotech assets were practically worthless; however, after reviewing thousands of files, the Company discovered this was not necessarily the case and began to perfect dozens of biotech patent applications around the world. As a result, the Company has entered into licensing agreements worth at least $13 million, of which the Company continues to receive payments, one as recently as last week, and has recovered patient samples and other assets which it believes are worth many millions more. More recently, as part of the recovery process, the Company discovered thousands of vials of patient samples and other materials at Sanford-Burnham from which the Company identified a significant collection of materials from the Company's biotech IP that includes additional patient samples, samples of the vaccine and other materials. As a result of this find, and just announced, the Company further uncovered a collection of insect cells used in the manufacture of the Company's FavId/Specifid products. These were a particular insect cell that were believed to be susceptible to a particular baculovirus infection providing unique utility including Trichoplusia ni (Hi-5) and Spodoptera Frugiperda (Sf9) cells which are important to the Company and a material element in its issued patents numbers 6,911,204, 8,114,404 and 8,133,486 as well as pending patent applications. This is valuable to MMRGlobal if it is successful with recommencement of research and development into its FavId/Specifid vaccine for treatment of B-Cell lymphomas.

On November 28, 2011, the Company announced it was granted a patent protecting methods of making compositions for B-Cell vaccines and expects to have Notice of Allowance for another U.S. patent protecting "methods of treating a patient with a B-cell lymphoma." The patent covers the methods of making compositions for B-Cell vaccines used in the fight against lymphoma and potentially other forms of cancer.

MMR is focusing on separating its biotech intellectual property from its operating Health IT/PHR business in an effort to maximize the value of the Company's stock for its shareholders. The structure will make it easier to value MMRGlobal in the event of a merger or other transaction given the Company's low share price at this time. MMR, in transaction discussions recently, found that potential acquirers had a difficult time valuing the Company, considering its biotech and HIT patent portfolios. MMR therefore is focusing on further separating its intellectual property from its operating PHR and Health IT businesses to make it easier for other companies in biotech or health IT to make cogent valuation decisions. For example, in a recent transaction, the biotech assets would have been converted to a preferred instrument for the benefit of shareholders of record at closing which the Company believes would not have been in the best interest of shareholders going forward.

According to Robert H. Lorsch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MMRGlobal, "Based on our ability to license our biotech and health IT assets, we believe that the value of our intellectual property is far from accurately reflected in MMRGlobal's current valuation. Potential partners interested in our MyMedicalRecords Personal Health Record and document imaging and management business, and who are interested in investment or other strategic relationships with MMR, find it complicated to deal with the biotech component of our business when valuing a transaction. Separating the two distinct business opportunities allows us to maximize the potential of both."

About MMRGlobal, Inc.

MMRGlobal, Inc., through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc. ("MMR"), provides secure and easy-to-use online Personal Health Records ("PHRs") and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions, serving consumers, healthcare professionals, employers, insurance companies, financial institutions, and professional organizations and affinity groups. The MyMedicalRecords PHR enables individuals and families to access their medical records and other important documents, such as birth certificates, passports, insurance policies and wills, anytime from anywhere using the Internet. MyMedicalRecords is built on proprietary, patented technologies to allow documents, images and voicemail messages to be transmitted and stored in the system using a variety of methods, including fax, phone, or file upload without relying on any specific electronic medical record platform to populate a user's account. The Company's professional offering, MMRPro, is designed to give physicians' offices an easy and cost-effective solution to digitizing paper-based medical records and sharing them with patients in real time through an integrated patient portal. MMR is an Independent Software Vendor Partner with Kodak to deliver an integrated turnkey EMR solution for healthcare professionals. Through its merger with Favrille, Inc. in January 2009, the Company acquired intellectual property biotech assets that include anti-CD20 antibodies and data and samples from its FavId/Specifid vaccine clinical trials for the treatment of B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To learn more about MMRGlobal, Inc. visit http://www.mmrglobal.com. View demos and video tutorials of the Company's products and services at http://www.mmrtheater.com.

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MMRGlobal Announces Filing of Additional 186 HIT Provisional Patent Applications

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March 26th, 2012 at 8:25 pm


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