CLEVELAND, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleveland Clinic, a world-class academic medical institution and leader in health information technology, today announced collaboration with Microsoft Corp., a worldwide leader in software, to pilot the patient-controlled data exchange between Microsoft(R) HealthVault(TM), a Web-based personal health platform; a suite of widely-used digital medical devices; and eCleveland Clinic MyChart(R), Cleveland Clinic’s electronic personal health record (PHR) system.
Today, more than 150,000 Cleveland Clinic patients use eCleveland Clinic MyChart(R). The short-term pilot, begun on Monday, Nov. 3, is the first pilot in the country to follow multiple diseases in the clinical delivery setting using multiple at-home devices such as glucometers, heart rate monitors, weight scales and blood pressure monitors.
The pilot will be a physician-driven, invitation-only opportunity offered to a group of Cleveland Clinic PHR users in the areas of diabetes, hypertension and heart failure. Cleveland Clinic plans to enroll approximately 400 patients and aims to demonstrate that the program will enable patients and physicians to better manage and track chronic diseases from home, using the patient’s own computer.
“As the prevalence of chronic disease rises at an alarming rate in the United States, the strain on our nation’s economy and healthcare system can not be relieved without the creation of innovative, cost-effective solutions that involve patients in proactively managing their healthcare,” said C. Martin Harris, M.D., Chief Information Officer, Cleveland Clinic. “At Cleveland Clinic, we strive to participate in and help to advance the national dialogue around a more efficient and effective national healthcare system. This pilot is intended to demonstrate that utilization of our comprehensive PHR system can empower patients and physicians to better communicate and manage chronic conditions, improve efficiencies and hopefully lower costs.”
Patients will be provided HealthVault-enabled digital devices, such as blood pressure monitors and glucometers, and asked to perform regular health monitoring. By connecting the device(s) to their home computers, their health information will be uploaded, with their consent, to a personal HealthVault account controlled by the patient, and then sent to their Cleveland Clinic MyChart account. This data will create an online log of the readings that will be available to the patient’s physician. Data sent from a patient’s HealthVault account to MyChart can not be changed or altered in any way.
“These kinds of innovative solutions have the potential to help physicians and patients save time, improve accuracy of health information and communicate more effectively,” states Christopher Hebert, M.D., Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Cleveland Clinic. “Offering more automated disease tracking will allow patients and physicians more time during office visits to discuss how to improve the patient’s health rather than how to improve their monitoring and provide them with more reliable data to share with all physicians involved in the patient’s care.”
By connecting with Microsoft(R) HealthVault, Cleveland Clinic hopes to deliver:
-- Improved outcomes for patients - Using home-based devices, patients may be more apt to track and measure their health, improving compliance and data integrity and allowing physicians to more efficiently view, track and measure their data.
-- Improved clinician efficiency - By receiving reliable, consistent and automatic patient data, physicians can improve the quality of office visits and reduce the length of appointment times.
-- Consumer Empowerment - This type of web-enabled, consumer-driven approach will provide patients with increased control of their medical information and an important part to play in the management of their chronic disease.
“The HealthVault pilot with Cleveland Clinic could have a far-reaching effect on the approach to managing chronic disease not just in this country but in any geography with Internet connectivity,” said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president, Microsoft Health Solutions Group. “We expect to demonstrate that innovative, cost-effective technology solutions can empower patients to partner more effectively with their physicians and better manage their chronic conditions from where they live and play -- in the home. Using readily accessible technology to deliver better care at lower cost -- with an improved experience for individuals -- can serve as a model for managing disease worldwide.”
Microsoft HealthVault (www.healthvault.com) is a personal health application platform. HealthVault provides a privacy and security-enhanced foundation on which a broad eco-system of providers can build innovative health and wellness solutions such as PHRs, disease management, fitness, weight loss and other Web applications. HealthVault can be used to collect and store health information that would otherwise reside in disparate systems, and transfer the information between a variety of providers’ health services and systems. It enables the re-use and free flow of interoperable and transportable personal health information.
About Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a not-for-profit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. Approximately 1,800 full-time salaried physicians and researchers at Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Florida represent more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties. In 2007, there were 3.5 million outpatient visits to Cleveland Clinic and 50,455 hospital admissions. Patients came for treatment from every state and from more than 80 countries. Cleveland Clinic’s Web site address is www.clevelandclinic.org .
About Microsoft in Health
Microsoft is committed to improving health around the world through software innovation. Over the past twelve years Microsoft has steadily increased its investments in health, with a focus on addressing the challenges of health providers, health and social services organizations, payers, consumers and life sciences companies worldwide. Microsoft closely collaborates with a broad ecosystem of partners and develops its own powerful health solutions, such as Amalga and HealthVault. Together, Microsoft and its industry partners are working to advance a vision of unifying health information and make it more readily available, ensuring the best quality of life and affordable care for everyone.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
CONTACT: Erinne Dyer, +1-216-444-8168, +1-216-312-9252, dyere@ccf.org, or
Angela Kiska, +1-216-444-6002, kiskaa@ccf.org, both of Cleveland Clinic
Web site: http://www.clevelandclinic.org/
http://www.healthvault.com/
