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CapMed Launches Second Phase of Personal Health Record (PHR) Project With Cardiovascular Patients in North Carolina

Posted on: Monday, 17 March 2008, 15:00 CDT

CapMed (http://www.capmed.com), a division of Bio-Imaging Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: BITI) and a leading provider of interactive personal health information solutions, and several partners have launched the second phase of a personal health record (PHR) project designed to facilitate patient access to medication histories to improve compliance with medication therapy, enhance patient-provider communications, and further engage patients through personalized messaging and wellness content.

The project participants include patients taking statin drugs or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). Patients, invited to participate in this six-month program by their physicians (pharmacists in phase one), are issued a CapMed Personal HealthKey™, a secure USB flash drive that contains CapMed's award-winning PHR application for storing, managing and communicating personal health information, that enables users to download personal medication history information directly into the PHR.

In part, the project will investigate the PHR's impact on patient engagement and improving communication between patients, providers and pharmacists. The project will also examine methods for educating and motivating patients, decreasing medical errors, and improving patient conformity with treatment.

"This project provides a national, replicable model for providing patients with medication history information and employs an innovative method for ensuring the accurate identification of participants," says Wendy Angst, general manager of CapMed. "This study will provide new insights into how to engage the general population in using PHRs, regardless of EMR proliferation."

Partners in the project include Kerr Drug, a leading pharmacy in North Carolina and South Carolina, whose pharmacists will authenticate participating patients and distribute the CapMed HealthKey; SureScripts, operator of the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, which will provide medication history data to populate the PHR; the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance (NCHICA), which provides consulting, education, and program promotion services; and two medical groups, Eagle Physicians & Associates, P.A. and Cornerstone Health Care, which will issue invitations to eligible cardiovascular patients. Research will come through collaborative efforts between Westat and the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.

"The study demonstrates the critical role of the pharmacist in patient communication, compliance and education," says Rebecca Chater, Director of Clinical Services at Kerr Drug. "Kerr pharmacists authenticate patients to receive medication history information, provide them with CapMed Personal HealthKeys, deliver education alerts and reminders, and facilitate information dissemination between patients using the HealthKey and their providers."

Study participants will download their medication refill history into a PHR and receive customized healthcare reminders, store and manage additional health data, and access information on health and medical topics. They will also participate in a series of Web surveys to answer questions about their use of the HealthKey, as well as the impact of the program on participants' health and treatment knowledge. Also to be evaluated are how the participants perceive the programs value, impact to prescription refill compliance, and the impact of the program on physician and pharmacist workflow and processes.

"Learning how patients receive medication therapy and personalized messaging and alerts through the CapMed/SureScripts interface will be an important step in improving the safety and efficiency of healthcare," says W. Holt Anderson, NCHICA's executive director. "We will discover whether patients' use of the HealthKey is associated with better prescription compliance, as evident in participants' refill histories, as well as how the HealthKey influences patients' knowledge of and feelings about their health and treatments."

About NCHICA

The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc. (NCHICA) is a nationally recognized nonprofit consortium that serves as an open, effective and neutral forum for health information technology (HIT) initiatives that improve health and care in North Carolina. Members include leading organizations in healthcare, research and information technology. Working closely with its members, NCHICA has the unique ability to convene and form partnerships to advance HIT adoption. NCHICA's leadership in conducting demonstration projects, hosting educational sessions and fostering collective efforts within North Carolina helps position the state at the vanguard of national HIT acceleration efforts. NCHICA is located in Research Triangle Park, NC. For more information, please call (919) 558-9258 or visit www.nchica.org.

About Kerr Drug

Kerr Drug is one of the most recognized and respected names in the chain drug industry. With its roots in the Carolinas and headquarters in Raleigh, Kerr Drug is taking the vision of community pharmacy farther than any other drug chain. The company has placed its future on its unique ability to provide patients, the medical community, and health plan sponsors, access to the most comprehensive and convenient health and wellness offering in the industry. With a mission to be the most comprehensive provider of pharmacy and related health care services, while continuing to be the most reliable provider of health related and convenience items, Kerr is currently providing services that far exceed the traditional drug store mix. For more information, please visit www.kerrdrug.com.

About CapMed

CapMed, a division of Bio-Imaging Technologies, Inc., is the cornerstone of Bio-Imaging's Personal Health Management Division. CapMed is the leading provider of patient outreach solutions for hospitals and healthcare systems, providers' offices, managed care organizations and pharmaceutical companies, with more than 600,000 distributed to date. These solutions enable patients to monitor and manage their health and to improve communications with care providers, ultimately improving outcomes and reducing costs of care and are available in five formats: Online PHR, icePHR, icePHR Mobile, the portable Personal HealthKey, the Personal Health Record CD-ROM. CapMed offers custom development to organizations who want to add unique or proprietary capabilities to the platform. For more information on the CapMed Personal Health Management Solutions, please visit www.CapMed.com.

Bio-Imaging Technologies, Inc. is a healthcare contract service organization providing services that support the product development process of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The Company has specialized in assisting its clients in the design and management of the medical-imaging component of clinical trials since 1990. Bio-Imaging serves its clients on a global basis through its Core Labs in Newtown, PA, and Leiden, The Netherlands, along with business offices in PA, MA, The Netherlands, Germany and France. Through its CapMed Personal Health Management Suite, Bio-Imaging provides its Personal HealthKey™ technology, the Personal Health Record (PHR) software, and CapMed Patient Portal allowing patients to better monitor and manage their health care information. (www.bioimaging.com)

Certain matters discussed in this press release are "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In particular, the Company's statements regarding trends in the marketplace and potential future results are examples of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the consummation and the successful integration of current and proposed acquisitions, the timing of projects due to the variability in size, scope and duration of projects, estimates made by management with respect to the Company's financial results, backlog, critical accounting policies, regulatory delays, clinical study results which lead to reductions or cancellations of projects and other factors, including general economic conditions and regulatory developments, not within the Company's control. The factors discussed herein and expressed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed in or implied by such statements. The forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstance. You should review the Company's filings, especially risk factors contained in the Form 10-K and the recent form 10-Q.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: Business Wire

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