World's First Emergency Medical Records Service On Internet Could Save Lives; NeoTrax launches PersonalMD.com Internet-based service to enable people to better manage their health.

PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 1999--NeoTrax, Inc. today announced the launch of PersonalMD.com (http://www.PersonalMD.com), the world's first free Internet-based service that could save lives in an emergency and enable people to better manage their health.

A key component of PersonalMD.com is PersonalMD-ER, the only Web-based emergency medical service that can give emergency physicians immediate access to an individual's health information virtually anywhere in the world.

Emergency room physicians' lack of access to vital patient health information, including drug allergies, current medications and health conditions, has been one of the shortcomings of a U.S. health care delivery system that sees more than 100 million emergency patient visits a year. Lives have been lost or serious medical problems have developed simply because doctors did not have the patient information they needed. But with PersonalMD-ER, patients traveling across town, out of state or out of the country can make this vital health information immediately available to physicians.

To use the free service, individuals simply enter the health information they want kept in a confidential, secure file at PersonalMD.com. A personalized PersonalMD-ER Emergency Card is then sent to the member, which he or she carries at all times. In an emergency, the health information can be made available, with the individual's permission and access code, to ER physicians by Web or fax. In addition, paramedics, who are trained to search for important health information, can relay the PersonalMD-ER Emergency Card information to ER doctors from the field in advance.

"There has never been anything like this service before," said Dr. Stephen J. Ruoss, M.D., a critical care and pulmonary disease specialist at Stanford University Medical Center, and a PersonalMD.com medical advisory board member. "PersonalMD-ER may well save lives and improve acute care outcomes by providing vital health information to physicians in emergencies."

Dr. Ruoss said that confidentiality of the personal health profiles is as important to PersonalMD.com as speedy delivery of the information in times of emergencies. "Physicians understand the importance of doctor-patient confidentiality. PersonalMD.com realizes it cannot succeed if it violates the trust of health care consumers," Dr. Ruoss said.

To that end, several state-of-the-art safeguards are built into the PersonalMD.com system to ensure that no one can access the confidential information other than the member himself or herself, or a physician who has been given authorization to access it. For example, the information is stored in encrypted form, so that no one -- not even PersonalMD.com employees -- can see or retrieve it.

"The significance of the PersonalMD-ER service is that no matter where people are -- anywhere in the world -- his or her vital health information remains confidential and yet is immediately accessible in case of an emergency," said Dr. William LeRoy Heinrichs, M.D., professor emeritus and past chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University Medical Center, and a PersonalMD.com medical advisory board member. "This is a big plus to both patients and doctors because it can truly save lives."

PersonalMD-ER is the first of several innovative services to be introduced by PersonalMD.com in the coming months. One planned additional service will be an emergency voice mail alert service that will give people the option of having the system automatically notify family members or friends in the event of an emergency.

PersonalMD.com offers an unprecedented array of Internet-based services to enable members to better manage their health. These include features such as PersonalMD-ER, personalized health and medical information drawn from major news sources and medical information databases, and community access via chat rooms and bulletin boards.

Additional features include a comprehensive health encyclopedia in both English and Spanish, a medical dictionary by Merriam Webster and a drug database with information on more than 1,400 generic and brand name medications.

PersonalMD.com was created by NeoTrax, Inc., a Pleasanton, Calif., Internet company that specializes in developing Web-based solutions that enable consumers to better manage their health. In addition to Drs. Ruoss and Heinrichs, medical advisory board members are: Dr. Bernard Aaron Cooper, M.D., C.M., Stanford University Medical Center;, and Dr. N. S. Ambati, M.D., professor in the Department of Urology, University of California, San Francisco-Fresno.

For more information about PersonalMD.com, go to http//www.PersonalMD.com. or call Ratan Tipirneni at NeoTrax at [phone].