NASHVILLE, TN – February 3, 2009 – With efforts to manage chronic diseases shackled by fragmented systems and a corresponding lack of comprehensive, interoperable clinical information at a patient level, Informatics Corporation of America (ICA; www.icainformatics.com) points to the need for technology solutions that deliver a community-based patient record. ICA’s technology, developed and refined over the past decade by practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center, is deployed outside the Vanderbilt setting in both enterprise and health information exchange (HIE) environments. ICA’s solution builds on existing clinical systems to create a unified electronic health record, facilitating proactive management of such chronic diseases as diabetes and congestive heart failure with dashboards that display key treatment indicators.
According to statistics gathered by Johns Hopkins University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, more than 40 percent of the American population, approximately 125 million people, suffer from such chronic illnesses as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer, chronic pain, and depression. This number is projected to grow to 157 million by the year 2020. Patients with chronic conditions, nearly half of whom have more than one chronic illness, currently account for approximately 76 percent of all hospitalizations and 65 percent of all U.S. health care expenditures. Using technology to improve management of chronic illnesses, and hence the general health of these patient populations, has the potential to reduce associated health care expenditures significantly.
For example, timely and trouble-free access to patient records through health information technology (HIT) at all levels of the care-delivery process can bring crucial improvements to every aspect of managing chronic diseases, including measurement, clinical decision-making, collaboration and coordination, and patient involvement.
"Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that diabetes alone affects nearly 24 million Americans, roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population, and another 57 million are estimated to have pre-diabetes," says Gary M. Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, whose technology solution is presently operational at Bassett Healthcare’s enterprise of five hospitals and 37 community health centers in Cooperstown, N.Y.; the Health Information Exchange of Montana; and Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, among others. "These alarming statistics heighten the need for technology that helps physicians and other providers improve care coordination. Too often, even electronic health care information is fragmented and stored in segregated systems across various locations within a delivery system. With the projected exponential increase of chronically ill patients and the resulting proliferation of segmented data, aggregation of this information into a single patient record that is readily accessible will become a mandate."
Zegiestowsky lauds support from national and state levels for initiatives promoting interoperable health information technology and the creation of HIEs, adding, "Such initiatives are meaningful because they improve the continuity of care for the chronically ill in multiple treatment settings, helping to resolve problems of compliance with recommended treatments and improving communications between patients and professionals. They also reduce duplication of services, promote greater portability of health records and enhance the quality of information exchange between providers, all contributing to cost savings for every health care stakeholder."
A survey earlier this year of 42 operational health information exchanges shows their positive impact on health care delivery, through better access to test results, improved compliance with chronic care and prevention guidelines, and better care outcomes for patients.
Recognizing the growing challenge in addressing chronic diseases, ICA’s solution enables individualized, coordinated patient care across treatment settings by:
- Delivering a community-based patient record in months rather than years
- Providing real-time patient status across care teams, workflows and information systems to support decision-making
- Tracking, measuring and reporting on clinical outcomes across patient populations
- Incorporating tools into workflow to make clinicians more efficient at the point of care
- Delivering dashboards for quality and patient activity reporting
"ICA’s technology forges a multidisciplinary partnership with the patient that fosters patient self-management, improves compliance and medications management, and reduces the readmission rate for those with chronic disease," adds Zegiestowsky. "We have designed our technology to meet the needs of physicians and providers involved in chronic disease management with an eye to building enhanced levels of cooperation and trust among stakeholders. Access to clinical data and information across multiple levels of care enables safe, efficient, and patient-centered care."
About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)
Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was formed to take innovative technology developed by practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market. Today ICA is unmatched in its ability to deliver a cost-effective, proven solution that leverages complete data across clinical settings to aid decision-making and improve patient outcomes. Visit www.icainformatics.com.
