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For
the
most current ABL Healthcare Online
and access to ABL.org, go to
http://www.abl.org/new/html/resources_news_hc.asp
Congratulations to Our 2006 ABBY Award Winners!
On June 7, 2006 nearly 100 senior healthcare and technology executives - including Members from seven of ABL's eight Round Tables - had the difficult job of determining which four, among the eight outstanding Finalists, would take home ABBY Awards, presented at the Eighth Annual Innovations in Healthcare Awards and Event. After the keynote presentation by Ken Kizer, MD, former CEO of the Veterans Healthcare System, on "Health System Transformation: Some Practical Lessons from the VA Experience," the Event's participants heard the Finalists present their path-breaking medical and information technologies, as well as innovative approaches to the delivery of healthcare, plus offerings in a new category: "Consumer Empowerment." The ABBY Award winners were selected on the basis of the scope of the problem addressed, the success of their approach in addressing it, and the convincing nature of the metrics used to measure their success in meeting the overall challenge of enabling the timely delivery of quality, cost-effective healthcare.
Winners, from left to right: Peter Boland, Ph.D., of BeWell Mobile Technology, Inc.; June Forkner-Dunn, accepting on behalf of Christine Paige, Ph.D., of Kaiser Permanente Internet Services Group; Herm Rosenman, of Gen-Probe, Inc.; and Steve Brown, of Health Hero Network
"Innovative
Information
Technology" ABBY
Award Winner:
BeWell
Mobile Technology, Inc.,
recognized
as an
application service provider that helps patients and
physicians manage chronic care conditions through cell phone
technology. BeWell worked with San Mateo Medical Center
in a pilot project to get adolescent patients more involved in
their own asthma care in order to reduce the number of urgent
care visits and hospitalizations. Results indicate that
patients and their families were willing and able to use cell
phones for monitoring and reporting their symptoms, and taking
medication in compliance with prescribed action plans. There
was a probable correlation between the frequency of
provider/case manager contacts with the patient, via the cell
phone application, and the success of the patient in
sustaining their self management behavior. To date, it appears
that no ER visits have occurred since the program’s
inception, which is a dramatic departure from the norm of 25
hospitalizations per 10,000 children aged 0-14 for
asthma-related illness.
"Consumer
Empowerment" ABBY Award Winner:
Kaiser
Permanente Internet Services Group,
honored
for being the first national health plan to offer a suite of
online healthy lifestyle tools – called eHealthy Lifestyle
program, available 24/7, to assist members – in English and
Spanish – with issues such as weight management, physical
fitness, nutrition, stress reduction and smoking cessation.
Randomized clinical trials found that 70,000 users have
completed the weight/fitness program and 55% lost weight;
23,000 have completed the nutrition program and 89% reported
improved eating habits; 14,000 have completed the stress
reduction program and 59% reported reduced stress; and 7,000
have completed the stop smoking program and 54% quit smoking.
In total, 85% of users rated eHealthy Lifestyle as good to
excellent.
"Innovative
Medical Technology"
ABBY Award Winner:
Gen-Probe
Incorporated,
recognized
as a
pioneer and global leader in the development, manufacture and
marketing of rapid, accurate and cost-effective nucleic acid
tests (NATs) used primarily to diagnose human diseases and to safeguard
the world's donated blood supply from viruses such as HIV-1,
Hepatitis C and B, and West Nile Virus. Gen-Probe
developed the first FDA-approved NAT test for blood screening,
the first fully automated NAT instrument, and operates a
state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for blood screening
products. The company was honored with the 2004 National
Medal of Technology, the highest honor for technological
innovation.
Gen-Probe
assays provide exquisite accuracy, ranging from 99% to 100%
and, based on NAT technologies and other screening methods,
studies estimate that the risk of contracting Hepatitis C from
a transfusion is about one in 1.8 million and the risk of
contracting HIV-1 from a transfusion is about one in 2.3
million donations. Approximately 30 million units of
blood components are transfused annually in the U.S.
"Innovative
Approach to the Delivery of Healthcare" ABBY Award Winner:
Health
Hero Network, honored
for its "Health Buddy" telehealth interface
between patients at home and their providers, incorporating
proactive monitoring, self-care education, medication
management and behavior modification. Health Hero is helping
to close the gap on the $69.9 trillion present
value of unfunded Medicare liabilities (according to Federal
Reserve Governor Edward Gramlich, on April 21, 2005).
Health Buddy is currently in use by over 12,000 patients and
has proven its worth in clinical trials: reduced
hospital admissions by 63%; reduced CHF hospitalizations by
72%; reduced CHF inpatient bed days from 8.6 to 1.7; increased
medication compliance from 34% to 94%; reduced CHF
costs/patient/year from $25.0K to $11.8K. Health Buddy
also represents the number-one telehealth solution in use by
the VA, deployed in over 100 clinical sites, with over 9,000
patients connected.
Ken Kizer, MD
2006
"Leadership
in Innovation" Award Winner:
Ken Kizer, MD, Chairman and CEO
of Medsphere,
and former
Under Secretary for Health in the Veteran’s
Administration, honored
for the transformational work accomplished while he was at
the helm of the Veterans Health System, and was the principal
architect and engineer of the largest transformation in the
VA's history, moving from a disjointed, bureaucratic behemoth
to a technology-enabled, veteran-centric, efficient and
performance-driven organization using the principles of
evidence-based medicine. Among the results, veterans nationwide
can walk into any VA healthcare facility and access
their VistA Electronic Health Record (EHRs), including
physicians' notes, medication and diagnostic test histories.
Beyond the public sector, the VA has demonstrated the
practical use of EHRs, bar-coded medication
administration and other information technology-driven
innovations that are now being applied in the
nation's private healthcare sector.
For
the
most current ABL Healthcare Online and access to ABL.org, go to
http://www.abl.org/new/html/resources_news_hc.asp