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NEWS RELEASE: Health Hero Network Says Recent Successes of Deployments with Medicare, VA Signal New Era of Telehealth. Successful Multi-Year Trials at VA, Medicare Show Telehealth-based Health Care Interventions Can Improve Care, Reduce Costs.

PALO ALTO Ca., January 23, 2009 Health Hero Network said today that the first large-scale, multi-year rollouts and evaluations of its Health Buddy® System have shown success in helping improve the care of high-cost Medicare beneficiaries and veterans while reducing costs and hospitalizations — signaling a new era of telehealth that will reshape an American healthcare landscape strained by an aging population, a reduction in caregivers and shrinking financial resources.

VA Results reported in TELEMEDICINE and e-HEALTH, VOL. 14 NO. 10. Care Coordination/Home Telehealth: The Systematic Implementation of Health Informatics, Home Telehealth, and Disease Management to Support the Care of Veteran Patients with Chronic Conditions. Adam Darkins, M.D., Patricia Ryan, R.N., M.S., Rita Kobb, M.N., A.P.R.N., Linda Foster, M.S.N., R.N., Ellen Edmonson, R.N., M.P.H., Bonnie Wakefield, Ph.D., R.N., and Anne E. Lancaster, B.Sc. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Care Coordination Services, Washington, D.C.

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News Release: VA Data Show Home Health Technology Improves Access to Care. VA Secretary Peake: Entire Health Care System More Effective

WASHINGTON – Veterans with chronic conditions can manage their health and avoid hospitalization by using special technology provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in their homes, according to a recent study.

VA Home Telehealth from http://www.carecoordination.va.gov/telehealth/ccht/

“The study showed that home telehealth makes health care more effective because it improves patients’ access to care and is easy to use,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. “A real plus is that this approach to care can be sustained because it’s so cost-effective and more veteran-centric. Patients in rural areas are increasingly finding that telehealth improves their access to health care and promotes their ongoing relationship with our health care system.”

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EHealth consultant Sananet has been piloting the Health Buddy telemedicine technology in the Netherlands for several years, with encouraging outcomes in diabetes, COPD, and heart failure, as well as benefits for everyone involved in care: patients, doctors, nurses, health insurers and government agencies. Here is what telemedicine technology looks like in the Netherlands, recently posted on YouTube.

Sananet reports the following results from its telemedicine in chronic care pilots:

• 30% reduction in hospitalization for heart failure patients in a telemedicine study from the University of Maastricht.
• Reduction in length of hospital stay for COPD patients from 13 days to 9 days on average in a telemedicine study from the University of Utrecht.
• In diabetes patients with an HbA1c of 8% or higher, a reduction in HbA1c of 1.5% compared to 0.6% in the control group in a study in Almere.

Although many think of telemedicine and telehealth as the remote collection of data from blood pressure monitors, digital weight scales, blood glucose monitors, and respiratory monitoring devices, Sananet achieved all of these results using a telemedicine system focused on educating and supporting patients at home in a simple daily text-message health dialogue about symptoms, behavior and knowledge.

Related posts:

Dutch Ministry of Health Recognizes Health Buddy for Best Practice in Telemedicine

Telebegeleiding met Health Buddy

Intel Health Guide Blood Pressure Monitoring

After over three years of research, development, and market study, Intel announced the launch of the Intel Health Guide, an Intel-branded device for remotely monitoring and managing patients with chronic illness at home. From Intel’s demo one can see that the device is a laptop computer no keyboard and a reversed touch-screen. Patients can connect and upload blood pressure monitors and other medical devices to communicate results with remote health care providers. In addition to vital sign data collection, the health monitoring software also provides patient reminders, surveys, educational content, and other communication tools.

Although Intel appears to be targeting at the same chronic disease management market, the Health Guide from Intel adds features and functions far beyond its predecessor Health Buddy from Health Hero Network, now a division of Robert Bosch. It will be interesting to see whether or the enhanced functionality such as video conferencing and multimedia content will be the key to market adoption.

Intel Health Guide Home Health Monitor

The real barriers to adoption of remote monitoring and other chronic care strategies may be less about functionality than about institutional incentives and business models ingrained in our health care system. The health care market with Medicare in the lead still rewards health care providers far more for treating the complications of chronic illness than it does for proactive management and monitoring aimed at preventing them.

The incentive systems that determine the viability of new models of health care enabled by devices like the Intel Health Guide and the Health Hero Health Network Health Buddy could be about to change, however. With favorable results from the Medicare chronic care improvement demonstration project currently underway from Health Hero Network in Washington and Oregon, Medicare coverage for health care providers to offer home health monitoring services may be around the corner.

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