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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the Health 2.0 conference, American Well(TM) and ActiveHealth Management (ActiveHealth(R)) announced a strategic collaboration to offer an innovative real-time technology that combines ActiveHealth's CareEngine(R) analytics, with American Well's Online Care System. When CareEngine identifies a medical issue (or gap in care) for a patient, the physician will receive an alert when they are actively consulting with the patient in an Online Care session. The physician can consider such information as well as the corresponding literature reference while offering guidance to the patient or suggesting a course of treatment. Like a real-time teleprompter, the patient-specific alerts are visually embedded as an integral (optional) resource in the physician's Online Care console.
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"This collaboration will put meaningful insights in front of physicians exactly when they can be of the greatest benefit for their patients -- during the actual care encounter," said Ido Schoenberg, MD, chief executive officer of American Well. "These clinical insights, in conjunction with the patient medical history and the live visual interaction, provide a broader foundation for physicians to deliver meaningful informed guidance to patients."
The CareEngine System is ActiveHealth's patented clinical decision support technology. The CareEngine compares patient health data to medical best practices that are based on the latest findings in evidence-based literature. It then issues alerts when opportunities for better care or potential medical errors are identified. American Well's Online Care enables live communication between physicians and patients. By leveraging CareEngine, physicians providing Online Care are made aware of individualized, specific opportunities to enhance or improve care -- for example, stopping a potentially harmful medication mix or adding a necessary evaluation to their patient's treatment plan.
In addition, patients who receive a CareEngine alert through their health plan portal, PHR or other online platform will have the opportunity to address the issue immediately by connecting to an Online Care session with an appropriate physician. Relevant information (e.g. diagnosis, treatment work-up) obtained during Online Care will be fed back to the CareEngine for analysis and may result in the generation of additional alerts.
"The CareEngine has been proven effective at improving the quality of care by communicating specific, evidence-based information to physicians and their patients. This collaboration between ActiveHealth and American Well is significant since now, for the first time, real-time clinical decision support alerts will be available when both the physician and the member are fully engaged in an online consultation. This increases the likelihood that a gap in care or medical error will be resolved," said Lonny Reisman, MD, chief executive officer of ActiveHealth Management.
The technology is expected to be commercially available to U.S. health plan clients of American Well and ActiveHealth Management in 2009.
About ActiveHealth Management
ActiveHealth Management is a leading provider of health management services, including disease management, clinical decision support and personal health records. The company's solutions, all based on its patented CareEngine(R) System, help individuals receive quality care and help organizations like health plans, employers and government payors reduce medical costs. More than 18 million people nationwide benefit from ActiveHealth programs. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in New York City, ActiveHealth is an independent subsidiary of Aetna (NYSE: AET). For more information, please visit http://www.activehealth.net.
About American Well
American Well has created a new healthcare marketplace where consumers and physicians can come together online to acquire and provide convenient and immediate healthcare services. Using the latest technologies in Web communications and digital telephony, American Well extends traditional healthcare services to the home setting. American Well is committed to supporting health plans in meeting consumer and employer demand for affordable, efficient and immediate access to quality care. For more information, please visit www.americanwell.com.
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Media Contact: Julie Goldman or Dave McKee Schwartz Communications 781-684-0770 [email protected]
SOURCE American Well
