InterComponentWare, Inc. (ICW)
Chronic Disease Management
InterComponentWare, Inc. is providing the ICW ehealth infrastructure and telemonitoring connectivity to Coventry HealthCare, a leading insurance provider in the United States. The Coventry project focuses on 650 Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) patients living within the Kansas City area. Patients utilize monitoring devices in their homes that are connected to a centralized source of specialized care providers. The program is designed to align member, physician and health plan incentives, resulting in improved patient outcomes.
In Germany, ICW has partnered with the insurer AOK to offer a telemonitoring program to CHF patients living in the state of Saxony. Patients take their own blood pressure and weigh themselves regularly. The monitoring devices relay the measurements via blue tooth technology to a centralized telemonitoring center where the data is trended and stored. Abnormal results are treated as an emergency and patients are referred to their local hospital. Less serious changes in data are referred to the patient’s doctor for follow-up.
Results
- The Trans-European Network – Home-Care Management System (TEN-HMS) study has demonstrated that structured care of heart failure patients via telemonitoring leads to reduced mortality.
- As with the TEN-HIMS study, AOK and Coventry patient participants are being measured for a reduction in hospitalizations and an improvement in the quality of life (using the Minnesota Heart Failure Questionnaire as the instrument).
- It is anticipated that both Coventry and AOK will roll out similar programs to other chronic disease patient populations.
***Submitted by Anne Marie Heil, ICW, amheil@amheil.com
Published: January 26, 2009
