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Filing It Away

MedsFile.com Founder understands need for personal medical information

Bobby L. Hickman
June 1, 2008

Entrepreneur Mark Holland developed the concept for Medsfile.com after realizing a need within his family for easily accessible personal medical information. The idea was based on an experience with his grandfather, who was forced to take a number of medications every day. The only way his mother could keep up was to develop a list.

Unfortunately, his mother was the only one who had the list, so after being rushed to the hospital one day, Holland’s grandfather had to wait until his mother was tracked down before they could administer any real treatment.

“It was a real mess,” Holland recalls. “And I thought that there had to be a better way to do this.”

So Holland founded MedsFile, a personal, secure Web service that enables individuals to input and store information about their medications, supplements, allergies, physicians, pharmacies, immunizations and other details. A patient or family member can store all the medical information they would need in an emergency or for a daily visit to a doctor’s office.

MedsFile customers receive an identification card that includes a login ID and PIN number. The card lists a few simple instructions that allow caregivers to pull up the information within two seconds. The data can be viewed online or printed.

The privately held firm has grown 350 percent since it began in 2004. The service costs about 10 cents a day – either $4 a month or $36 for a year.

“The biggest roadblock we have is that since it’s such a unique service, people don’t know about us,” Holland says. “Thus far, we’ve relied on Internet searches and word-of-mouth marketing. We’re starting to work with physicians to get brochures into waiting rooms. We’ve also started putting out feelers to corporations, as this would make a unique employee benefit.”

Ultimately, Holland would like to expand into complementary services, such as providing medical information resources. He currently is working on a Spanish version of the site and sees the potential for franchising the concept globally.

“We get calls all the time from people who say we have made their lives easier,” Holland says. “My dream is to one day have someone call me and say ‘You saved my life.”

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