Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) and Tolven Inc. today announced the availability of open source electronic Personal Health Record (ePHR) solutions on Palm(R) Treo(TM) smartphones. The Tolven ePHR, an intuitive web-based application, lets users create, view, store and share extensive healthcare information, including medical history, medication lists, doctor's orders, laboratory results and immunization records -- or simply monitor and capture blood glucose levels in the privacy of their homes. With Treo smartphones, patients, their families and clinicians can securely connect to health records via the Internet virtually anywhere.(1)

"Imagine visiting your doctor's office and not having to complete any forms when all of the information needed is already available and can be shared proactively with your care provider via your Treo smartphone," said Neil Cowles, chief executive officer for Tolven. "Putting this information securely in the hands of consumers encourages them to become more engaged in their care management. For healthcare providers, whether an office-based physician or nurse or the paramedic in the field, this solution promises to help avoid unnecessary risks and delays in treatment."

Innovations in the delivery of healthcare information technology solutions, such as offering open source ePHR on mobile devices, pave the way for improvements in clinical outcomes and reductions in the cost of healthcare delivery. With ePHR, users securely collate information from a number of sources, including self-entered data and records provided by participating care providers and payers. Patients have the authority to grant access to these records to emergency service providers, on behalf of themselves or those they look after (such as aged relatives, children and those with disabilities).

"Pairing the Treo smartphone with Tolven's ePHR solution lets consumers interact with their health records for alerts, reminders and clinical data recording on the go, rather than logging onto a personal computer," said Gail Moody-Byrd, director of healthcare marketing for Palm, Inc. "The mobility of the Treo smartphone, its ease of use and touch-screen design makes ePHR a far more dynamic tool for capturing vital health information, such as blood glucose levels and blood pressure."

The adoption of ePHRs has rapidly grown over the past few years. A recent study performed for the Markle Foundation found that two-thirds of the public (65 percent) is interested in accessing their own personal health information electronically. This finding is consistent with a number of initiatives around the world that are striving to meet consumer demand by spurring improvements in quality of care.

ePHR is available today as a free download at www.tolven.org. The electronic Personal Health Record is initially being made available on the Treo 680 smartphone, and over the coming months will be offered on other Treo smartphone models.

As an open source solution, the Tolven platform and applications can be deployed without purchasing any software licenses. A full complement of components necessary to use Tolven solutions are also available through the open source community, including databases, application servers, rules engines and workflow engines.

Palm, Inc., a leader in mobile computing, strives to put the power of computing in people's hands so they can access and share their most important information. The company's products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm(R) Treo(TM) smartphones and Palm handheld computers, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm Retail Stores and Palm online stores.

Tolven aims to make open source healthcare information solutions that realize the true potential of the latest technology available to all - while bridging the gap between consumers, employers and healthcare providers.

The informing vision of Tolven is to develop the most innovative health informatics and service delivery solutions, with global applicability. Tolven is accomplishing this goal by leveraging the affordable nature and quality of open source software development to provide high quality - low cost secure electronic health record solutions for consumers and clinicians alike. The open standards and open source business model that Tolven has adopted facilitate rapid collaborations with other open source developers working in the healthcare and life science marketplaces. These collaborations will accelerate the vitally necessary integration of healthcare and life science solutions available in the marketplace. Tolven software is distributed freely to the open source community under GNU LGPL license terms.

More information about Tolven is available at http://www.tolvenhealth.com.

(1) Within wireless service coverage area only. Availability and coverage depends upon carrier and the geographic scope of international roaming agreements. Email, messaging and web access requires data services from a mobile service provider at an additional cost.