Federal Court Denies Injunction to MeridianEMR in Suit Against Intuitive Medical Software

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Aug 24, 2011, 10:35 ET

SPRINGFIELD, Mo., Aug. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Intuitive Medical Software, LLC, the company that developed and now markets UroChartEHR® – the leading electronic health record software designed exclusively for use by urology specialty practices – announced that, on August 18, 2011, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (at Newark) denied the application of MeridianEMR, Inc. (a NJ software provider) for a preliminary injunction to bar IMS "...from using, disclosing, conveying, trading on or disposing of [Meridian's] proprietary or confidential information and trade secrets..." The NJ Court denied Meridian's application, finding that IMS posed no threat of irreparable harm to Meridian.

The litigation resulted from IMS assisting a specialty urology practice interested in converting from MeridianEMR™ to UroChartEHR. Meridian asserted in the litigation that its customers who desired to "convert" their patient records for use with another electronic health records system were obligated to pay Meridian's charges for such "conversion."

On June 16, 2011, Meridian brought suit against IMS and their own customer, alleging that IMS had, in the course of providing such assistance to the urology practice, converted its property, interfered with its contracts and prospective economic advantage, had been unjustly enriched and was liable to Meridian for damages. Meridian also alleged that their own customer had, in the course of evaluating a conversion to UroChartEHR, breached its contract with Meridian, breached its obligations of good faith and fair dealing and had committed fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

The Meridian customer involved in the action has since decided to proceed with the conversion to UroChartEHR.

In its opposition to Meridian's application for a preliminary injunction, IMS denied that either IMS or the Meridian customer named in the suit had acted unlawfully or damaged Meridian as Meridian alleged. Craig D. Frazier, President and C.E.O. of IMS told the Court, "I believe that the action instituted by [Meridian] is an attempt to prevent one of its customers...from migrating to UroChartEHR and to send a message to other customers of [Meridian] to discourage them from doing likewise." Frazier went on to tell the Court that he believed the litigation to be part of an overall strategy by Meridian to "lock-in" its customers.

In the wake of the Court's ruling denying its application, Meridian has launched a campaign defending its actions as necessary to protect the protected health information of its customers and its own trade secrets. Documents filed with the Court confirm that neither of these were at risk.

Of the Court's ruling, Frazier stated, "IMS is encouraged by the ruling. We hope now to prove to the Court that we did nothing more than assist a medical practice that wanted to move its own patient records from MeridianEMR to UroChartEHR and did not act unlawfully or damage Meridian in doing so. We firmly believe that doctors are entitled to their patients' records and should be able to move them to the electronic health record system of their choice."

Regarding Meridian's newly-launched campaign to divert attention from its data conversion policy, Frazier commented, "It is unfortunate to see that there are EHR vendors who expect to retain their customers by depriving them of the ability to de-encrypt or move their own patient records without paying heavy penalties. Practices should ask their EHR vendors for details of their data conversion policies. They should know whether it will cost them as much to exit their vendor's system as it cost to install it in the first place. A practice should continue to use an EHR because the system is best for them, not because they are forced to pay a penalty to change."

The litigation is not concluded. IMS intends to vigorously defend itself against Meridian's claims for damages (and request for a permanent injunction) and to assert its claims against Meridian.

For more information on UroChartEHR® and IMS please visit www.urochartehr.com or contact [email protected].

SOURCE Intuitive Medical Software, LLC