Web Based System provides information to chronic patients.
December 7, 2006 -
Cyber Patient Center helps clinicians set up virtual offices to offer preventive care to chronic patients and help them self-manage their disease. With ability to record appointments, and capture and store test results, system also enables patients receive education of disease and new developments in evidence-based treatments. Its patient portal enables patients to monitor their progress, and communicate with physicians via Internet or cell phones.
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Preventive Care for Chronic Patients in a Cyber Space Office - Going Beyond EMR
DALLAS, Nov. 17 -- Physmark has announced Cyber Patient Center (CPC) a computer software and system that helps clinicians set up a virtual office in cyber space to offer preventive care to chronic patients and help them self-manage their disease.
When it comes to medical costs, chronic care is the 800-pound gorilla that consumes over 75% of funds. Most efforts in controlling chronic treatment costs are aimed at the high-risk patient who may require imminent hospitalization. But today, low risk chronic patients are not getting preventive care and they can cost the nation over $3 trillion in the next decade, as they become high-risk patients.
Many state governors have recognized this costly threat and are trying to institute measures to stem chronic problems. With a half-billion-dollar increase for health care costs looming, Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington has proposed a five-prong plan, three of which pertain to the care of chronic patients. Governor Huckabee has won a personal battle against obesity and diabetes and applied the lessons he learned in a war against obesity in Arkansas. Governors in California and New Mexico, as well as many state and local governments, are also seeking ways to reduce the harmful effects of obesity, diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases.
Conventional approaches to offering preventive care -- adapting ambulatory care techniques or using disease management's one-on-one coaching techniques -- are too expensive and difficult to justify when the rewards are many years away and when the patient has no immediate pain that must be addressed. "IT experts would say that this calls for a re-engineering of Business Processes," said Dr. Jacob Kuriyan, president and CEO of Physmark, Inc.
Preventive care requires a setting even less acute than a walk-in clinic. It may be a simple question or an explanation for an out-of-range lab result, but such assistance may be required at the point of need -- wherever the patient is -- at home or at work. Clearly brick and mortar clinics aren't cost effective, as many of the diabetic centers discovered in New York. And using nurses and clinicians to manage preventive care is overkill. The ideal solution would be to educate the patient to self-manage their disease and provide continual, or as it is said in IT, " 24 x 7 support."
"The obvious answer is Cyber Patient Center, a virtual office in cyber space, manned by clinicians offering convenient access, around the clock," said Dr. Kuriyan. "This would bring the efficiencies of the web to healthcare, without seriously disrupting current practices."
Dr. J. Joseph Prendergast of Redwood City, Calif., is a nationally renowned endocrinologist and an enthusiastic supporter of the Cyber Patient Center that he is setting up in the Bay Area. He is quick to point out that his role as a clinician in CPC will be to help chronic patients and their primary care physicians comply with rules of preventive care and not to treat the patient or prescribe medications. Drawing from the award winning success in his model of "Continuous Care," Dr. Prendergast emphasizes disease education coupled with life style changes to increase personal quality of life. The understanding of the disease arc and improved sense of well being while pursuing health makes compliance easy. Patients' participation in their health gives them the ownership that makes them understand "Dr. Joe's" often-heard phrase, "It's your time."
Physmark's Cyber Patient Center, like the EMR, can record appointments and securely capture and store lab and other test results. But CPC offers more. It helps chronic patients receive education via the web to remain informed of the disease and new developments in evidence-based treatments. Its patient portal allows patients to personally monitor their progress or together with their physician, set new goals and communicate with their physicians via the Internet or cell phones. Physician performance and patient compliance can be measured separately and medical costs controlled where they are most significant -- among employees who are developing serious and expensive illnesses.
Medical groups, hospitals and pharmacies can host or support these cyber-offices that are not restricted by geography. And self-insured employers, backed up with qualified clinicians, can set up or use these Cyber Patient Centers and provide service for their employees nationwide.
Physmark's corporate headquarters are in Dallas; additional offices are located in Albuquerque and Los Angeles. For more information, call (800) 922-7060 or visit Physmark's website at http://www.physmark.com/.
Source: Physmark
CONTACT:
Jacob Kuriyan
Physmark
+1-800-922-7060 or +1-505-897-7500
Public Relations:
The Bosque Group
Jeanne Thompson
USA
Phone: 505-897-7100
General Information:
Jacob Kuriyan President and CEO
USA
Phone: 800-922-7060 Company Information: Name: Physmark, Inc. Address: 13140 Coit Rd. City: Dallas State: TX ZIP: 75240 Country: USA Phone: 800-922-7060 FAX: 972-231-1410 http://www.physmark.com
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