Taking Control: Chronic Disease Patients Reduce Hospital Visits, Prevent Further Complications
Industry Canada Backs New Solution to Empower Patients
Saint John, NB — November 6th, 2006 — As Canadian healthcare wait times continue to rise, millions of chronic disease patients will soon have the option to manage their health from home or work. AnyWare Group (AWG), a provider of customer driven access solutions, today launched MyCareAnyWare an interactive chronic disease management solution to enable patients to control their health by securely accessing select medical files and disease education resources via an Internet connection. Through this connection, the patient can update their health status, while core hospital teams monitor, analyze this information, provide feedback and alert the relevant physician, if they detect a problem.
MyCareAnyWare evolved after Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation (AHSC) located in Saint John, New Brunswick, collaborated with AWG to address concerns about diabetic patients missing vital disease education and health monitoring appointments. AWG adapted its Role Oriented Access Management (ROAM) technology to overcome this challenge.
According to the World Health Organization, chronic diseases are the major cause of death and disability worldwide and are projected to account for 89 per cent of all deaths in Canada. Industry Canada is funding research to fine-tune MyCareAnyWare for the Canadian market.
At AHSC, MyCareAnyWare empowered diabetic patients to monitor and post their blood sugar levels, blood pressure, heart rate and other pertinent metrics, from anywhere and at anytime. If a patient’s metrics fall out of a healthy range, they receive alerts from a diabetic educator, in real time, allowing them to effectively adapt their diet and exercise to correlate with up-to-the-minute readings. This approach offers a convenient and effective alternative for patients who normally wait in crowded health clinics. Regular monitoring of key health metrics, such as glycemic readings, prevents further complications associated with diabetes since it motivates patients to better understand their illness, accommodate lifestyle changes and more effectively control their health.
Transfer of information between patients and our diabetes care team is essential in managing this disease,” says Dr. Dornan, an endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes and is conducting research on this disease. “MyCareAnyWare is alleviating the complications and hospitalization of our patients.”
MyCareAnyWare also enables patients to access a specialized chat room where they can exchange valuable information, such as diabetic recipes and exercise regimes, with other patients.
“Canada has more than two million diabetics,” says Gerry Verner, chief executive officer, AnyWare Group. “I see tremendous value in implementing MyCareAnyWare in hospitals across Canada, which could help reduce the $13.2 billion our healthcare system spends to support them.”
MyCareAnyWare also meets the most stringent security, privacy, and access management requirements of hospitals in North America, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Joint Council on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
To date, AWG’s ROAM technology, which enables users to log onto a highly secure, individualized website to access information and applications based on their responsibilities within an organization, has been implemented in 63 hospitals across North America. AWG is presently in negotiations to offer MyCareAnyWare at several other health organizations, including health insurance providers in the U.S.
About AnyWare Group
AnyWare Group is an innovative provider of customer-driven business solutions. Leveraging the Internet and the ROAM platform, AnyWare Group cost effectively enables organizations to deploy highly reliable, secure information-based business solutions. ROAM is a complete, secure platform for delivering information and applications to authorized users where they need it. ROAM is packaged with powerful tools, capabilities and engineering services designed to simplify the user experience, integrate with any application, and ease support efforts.
About Atlantic Health Sciences Centre
Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation is New Brunswick’s largest multi-facility, accredited Region al Health Authority. Comprised of 13 hospitals and health centres extending across 200 km, AHSC serves a catchment population of 176,000 in the Southwestern part of the province. Extending from Sussex to St. Stephen, including the Fundy Isles of Grand Manan, Campobello and Deer Island, AHSC offers a wide range of primary through tertiary level health care services delivered by a dedicated staff of 4,400 employees and 280 (active) physicians and dentists (420 including locums). Twenty clinical programs are delivered through in-patient, emergency, ambulatory and community/home care settings.
Saint John is the primary referral centre for the people of this region and, in a number of tertiary services, for people throughout the province. Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation (AHSC) is a designated campus of the Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University and is affiliated with Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, has an active Research Services Division, and is the Province’s centre of excellence in many Provincial programs, such as the New Brunswick Heart Centre.
For more information on AnyWare Group:
Margie McNeil
Account Executive
MAVERICK PR
416.640.5525 ext. 242
margiem@maverickpr.com
For more information on Atlantic Health Sciences:
Patricia Crowdis
Director of Communications and Media Relations
Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation
506.648.6116
CROPA@reg2.health.nb.ca