| On-Line Disease Monitoring |
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Renal Disease Management (www.renaldiseasemanagement.com) in Boardman, Ohio, offers its members-all of whom have end stage renal disease or chronic kidney disease-direct communication with a case manager via e-mail. Patients report on their health status, impending changes in their dialysis treatment, medications and other aspects of their daily lives. "It's taken on urban myth proportions that these patients just don't use the Web, but that mythology is going away," says Peter F. Sauer, executive vice president. "We've found with our Aetna population, that approximately four out of five have access to the Web. A significant number of them wish to communicate with nurse case managers by Net." Since 1995, Accordant, (www.accordant.com) founded in Greensboro, N.C., by Steve Schelhammer, has been offering disease management services to patients with some of the less common chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis and hemophilia. Five to 10 percent of the company's patients currently use the on-line personal health manager. About 5,000 people, half of whom are registered members, visit the site each week. "In more traditional medicine, the patient comes to the office when something goes wrong," says Dr. Dick Hodach, medical director of Accordant's Internet services. "But in chronic diseases there are many issues patients have to deal with that aren't acute. That's a great area where disease management can have a significant effect." Steve Jolley, CEO of Protocol Driven Healthcare (PDHI) in Bernardsville, N.J., began his broad-based on-line disease management Website in 1998 with myasthma (www.myasthma.com). In a controlled pilot study of 25 patients and seven pulmonologists, patients were asked to complete a daily diary. The site monitored peak flows, symptoms and exposures to triggers. Patients received graphs showing their progress. "The purpose was to make patients more aware and more compliant," Mr. Jolley says. PDHI (www.pdhi.com) now has about 50,000 registered users for 12 sites including mybladder, mydepression and mybackpain. Each site is monitored by a nurse practitioner who answers questions or forwards them to other experts. Most PDHI patients come to the site through health plans, but individuals can register to use the sites on their own free of charge. National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver uses a customized version of myasthma as a disease management tool for hundreds of its patients across the country. To enter information in their diaries, patients access myasthma through the National Jewish Website (www.nationaljewish.org). Significant changes in symptoms set off built-in alerts notifying nurses who then call the patients. Patients can also send and receive messages over a secure message board. "This is a good preventive tool to help people know when they are getting sick," says Dr. David Tinkelman, vice president of health initiatives at National Jewish. Boston-based Predictive Sciences (www.predsci.com) is another company founded to explore ways of using the Internet to promote better self-care. Having begun with a diabetes self-care component, the company plans to offer programs in cardiovascular, asthma, weight, depression and women's self-care. "In the product is a whole piece built around communicating with your provider," says Amelia Spiliotes, CEO. "Physicians see our system as an important tool to help their patients in areas where they don't have time to help them." Disease Management Websites Written by: Janice Rosenberg Janice Rosenberg is a Chicago-based freelance writer specializing in healthcare and business. |
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Cor Solutions in Buffalo Grove, Ill., currently with about 25,000 members, added "ecorsolutions" (| < Previous | Next > |
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