USA Equities (USAQ) Risk Analysis

Numerous state and federal laws and regulations govern the collection, dissemination, use, privacy, confidentiality, security, availability and integrity of personally identifiable information (PII), including protected health information (PHI). HIPAA establishes a set of basic national privacy and security standards for the protection of PHI, by health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and certain healthcare providers, referred to as covered entities, and the businesses with which covered entities contract for services, which includes us. HIPAA requires companies like us to develop and maintain policies and procedures with respect to PHI, including the adoption of administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect such information. HIPAA imposes mandatory penalties for certain violations which can be significant. HIPAA mandates that the Secretary of Health and Human Services, or HHS conduct periodic compliance audits of HIPAA covered entities or business associates. It also tasks HHS with establishing a methodology whereby individuals who were the victims of breaches of unsecured PHI may receive a percentage of the Civil Monetary Penalty fine paid by the violator. HIPAA further requires that patients and, in some instances, HHS be notified of any unauthorized acquisition, access, use or disclosure of their unsecured PHI that compromises the privacy or security of such information, with certain exceptions. Numerous other federal and state laws protect the confidentiality, privacy, availability, integrity and security of PHI. These laws in many cases are more restrictive than, and may not be preempted by, HIPAA, creating complex compliance issues for us and our clients potentially exposing us to additional expense, adverse publicity and liability. If we do not comply with existing or new laws and regulations related to PHI, we could be subject to criminal or civil sanctions. Because of the extreme sensitivity of the PHI we store and transmit, the security features of our technology platform are very important. If our security measures, some of which are managed by third parties, are breached or fail, unauthorized persons may obtain access to sensitive client and patient data, including HIPAA-regulated PHI. As a result, our reputation could be severely damaged, adversely affecting client and patient confidence. Clients may curtail their use of or stop using our services or our client base could decrease, which would cause our business to suffer. In addition, we could face litigation, damages for contract breach, penalties and regulatory actions for violation of HIPAA and other applicable laws or regulations and significant costs for remediation, notification to individuals and for measures to prevent future occurrences. Any security breach could also result in increased costs associated with liability for stolen assets or information, repairing system damage that caused by such breaches, incentives offered to clients or other business partners in an effort to maintain business relationships after a breach and implementing measures to prevent future occurrences, including organizational changes, deploying additional personnel and protection technologies, training employees and engaging third-party experts and consultants. While we maintain insurance covering certain security and privacy damages and claim expenses, we may not carry insurance or maintain coverage sufficient to compensate for all liability and in any event, insurance coverage would not address the reputational damage that could result from a security incident. We outsource important aspects of the storage and transmission of client and patient information, and thus rely on third parties to manage functions that have material cyber-security risks. We attempt to address these risks by requiring outsourcing subcontractors who handle client and patient information to sign business associate agreements contractually requiring those subcontractors to adequately safeguard personal health data to the same extent that applies to us and in some cases by requiring such outsourcing subcontractors to undergo third-party security examinations. However, we cannot assure you that these contractual measures and other safeguards will adequately protect us from the risks associated with the storage and transmission of client and patient proprietary and protected health information.

Although our QHSLab has been provided to physicians and enabled them to generate revenues, we have only recently begun to charge physicians for this product under various software as a service, subscription and license based revenue models. We intend to develop additional features to be added to QHSLab to provide PCPs with additional sources of revenue. There is no assurance that any of the new features we develop will gain market acceptance. We cannot guarantee we will be able to produce commercially successful products. Further, our eventual operating results could be susceptible to varying interpretations by potential customers, or scientists, medical personnel, regulatory personnel, statisticians and others, which may delay, limit or prevent executing our proposed business plan.

Our success depends upon our ability to refrain from infringing upon the intellectual property rights of others. Some companies, including some of our competitors, own large numbers of patents, copyrights and trademarks, which they may use to assert claims against us. As we grow and enter new markets, we will face a growing number of competitors. As the number of competitors in our industry grows and the functionality of products in different industry segments overlaps, we expect that software and other solutions in our industry may be subject to such claims by third parties. Third parties may in the future assert claims of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights against us. We cannot assure you that infringement claims will not be asserted against us in the future, or that, if asserted, any infringement claim will be successfully defended. A successful claim against us could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty payments, prevent us from offering our services, or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners or pay substantial settlement costs, including royalty payments, in connection with any such claim or litigation and to obtain licenses, modify applications or refund fees, which could be costly. Even if we were to prevail in such a dispute, any litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations.

The use of our products will involve the storage, transmission and processing of our clients' and their patients' private data. Individuals or entities may attempt to penetrate our network or platform security, or that of our third-party hosting and storage providers, and could gain access to our clients' and their patients' private data, which could result in the destruction, disclosure or misappropriation of proprietary or confidential information of our clients' and their patients' or their customers, employees and business partners. If any of our clients' private data is leaked, obtained by others or destroyed without authorization, it could harm our reputation, we could be exposed to civil and criminal liability, and we may lose our ability to access private data, which will adversely affect the quality and performance of our platform. In addition, our platform may be subject to computer malware, viruses and computer hacking, fraudulent use attempts and phishing attacks, all of which have become more prevalent. Any failure to maintain the performance, reliability, security and availability of our products or services and technical infrastructure to the satisfaction of our clients may harm our reputation and our ability to retain existing customers and attract new users. While we will implement procedures and safeguards that are designed to prevent security breaches and cyber-attacks, they may not be able to protect against all attempts to breach our systems, and we may not become aware in a timely manner of any such security breach. Unauthorized access to or security breaches of our platform, network or computer systems, or those of our technology service providers, could result in the loss of business, reputational damage, regulatory investigations and orders, litigation, indemnity obligations, damages for contract breach, civil and criminal penalties for violation of applicable laws, regulations or contractual obligations, and significant costs, fees and other monetary payments for remediation. If customers believe that our platform does not provide adequate security for the storage of sensitive information or its transmission over the Internet, our business will be harmed. Customers' concerns about security or privacy may deter them from using our platform for activities that involve personal or other sensitive information.

We may use open source software in connection with our products and services. Companies that incorporate open source software into their products have, from time to time, faced claims challenging the use of open source software and/or compliance with open source license terms. As a result, we could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software or claiming noncompliance with open source licensing terms. Some open source software licenses require users who distribute software containing open source software to publicly disclose all or part of the source code to such software and/or make available any derivative works of the open source code, which could include valuable proprietary code of the user, on unfavorable terms or at no cost. While we monitor the use of open source software and try to ensure that none is used in a manner that would require us to disclose our proprietary source code or that would otherwise breach the terms of an open source agreement, such use could inadvertently occur, in part because open source license terms are often ambiguous. Any requirement to disclose our proprietary source code or pay damages for breach of contract could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations and could help our competitors develop products and services that are similar to or better than ours.

We depend upon third parties to supply us with all of the products included in the "AllergiEnd" line of products from which we currently derive most of our revenues. If these parties were unable or unwilling to continue to supply our needs, we might not be able to find an alternative source of supply which would materially adversely impact our business, financial condition and operating results.

Global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption as a result of the geopolitical instability resulting from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Israel-Hamas conflict and efforts by terrorist organizations to disrupt global shipping patterns. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Israel-Hamas conflict and efforts to disrupt shipping through the Suez Canal and the resulting measures that have been taken, and could be taken in the future, by NATO, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Israel and other countries have created global security concerns that could have a lasting impact on regional and global economies and financial markets. Although the length and impact of the ongoing conflicts and any sanctions imposed are highly unpredictable, they could lead to market disruptions, including significant volatility in commodity prices, credit and capital markets and lead to instability and lack of liquidity in capital markets, adversely impacting our ability to finance our operations.

The occurrence of one or more natural disasters, unusually adverse weather conditions, pandemic outbreaks, such as the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, terrorist acts, conflicts between nations or rogue groups, and the response of governments and US agencies to such occurrences, could adversely affect our operations and financial performance. To the extent these events impact one or more of our key suppliers, our operations and financial performance could be materially adversely affected through lost sales. Such events could also cause US agencies and insurance companies to modify reimbursement policies which could result in lost sales, reduced revenues and otherwise adversely affect our financial performance.