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Northwest Physicians Network Signs With Siemens to Launch Disease Management Program

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

Focused on improving the quality and cost of caring for chronically ill patients, Northwest Physicians Network (NPN), Tacoma, Wash., has signed to implement Siemens Medical Solutions Soarian(R) Disease Management information technology (IT) solution to support the management of Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) patients. NPN will also become the beta site for new modules Siemens is developing for diabetes and asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

"Diabetes, chronic heart failure and asthma are some of the nation's most challenging diseases to manage and monitor because many people are unaware of the symptoms and the necessary health treatments," said Rick MacCornack, Ph.D., chief systems integration officer, Northwest Physicians Network. "With Soarian Disease Management we can monitor our growing population of patients with chronic heart failure and create a management solution for our state's rising diabetic population, as well as asthmatic and COPD patients."

An interactive Web-based solution, Soarian Disease Management provides patients with the guidance and support to manage and conveniently report on their daily health status. The system's workflow management capabilities help providers follow chronically ill patients' adherence to care plans and provides a holistic picture of their condition, pushing relevant information to clinicians.

Tasks can be scheduled and tracked to support a patient's specific condition, including reminders for physicians to order tests or additional studies. The solution also pushes notifications to clinicians, enabling them to choose the correct intervention for a patient who does not report as scheduled, or who reports vital statistics out of hospital-defined ranges.

These features, which can help create significant cost savings for healthcare facilities by keeping chronically ill patients out of expensive care settings, are among the projected benefits driving greater adoption of disease management solutions.

Managing the Silent Diseases

According to the American Diabetes Association, there are approximately 20.8 million children and adults in the United States, or 7 percent of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, 6.2 million people, or nearly one-third, are unaware that they have the disease. Within Washington State, diabetes affects nearly 1.4 million residents.

It is also important to note that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under 15. In addition, it is estimated that the cost of treating asthmatics under the age of 18 is $3.2 billion per year.

"The care management, pay for performance and quality initiatives involved with these chronic diseases have become a key area of focus for many healthcare facilities," said Tom Miller, president, Healthcare IT Division, Siemens Medical Solutions. "Solutions like Soarian Disease Management are an interesting way of combining the telephone and the Internet, so that patients and physicians - and their office nurses - can communicate with each other on a daily or weekly basis, rather than waiting for a crisis to arise."

NPN is a founding member of The Northwest Health Information Network (NWHIN), a multi-state health information network created to facilitate the exchange of clinical health data across Washington and Idaho.

To further support its patient care and community connectivity initiatives, NPN has also implemented Siemens Soarian Community Access, an IT solution that enables healthcare providers to reach outside the walls of their organizations to securely connect with patients and other members of the healthcare community online - helping to build physician affinity, increase efficiency and streamline communications.

Future initiatives at NPN involve integrating Soarian Community Access and Soarian Disease Management to further improve efficiency and streamline provider and patient communication.

Siemens Medical Solutions of Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) with headquarters in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and Erlangen, Germany, is one of the largest suppliers to the healthcare industry in the world. The company is known for bringing together innovative medical technologies, healthcare information systems, management consulting, and support services, to help customers achieve tangible, sustainable, clinical and financial outcomes. Employing approximately 33,000 people worldwide and operating in more than 120 countries, Siemens Medical Solutions reported sales of 7.6 billion EUR, orders of 8.6 billion EUR and group profit of 976 million EUR for fiscal 2005. More information can be obtained by visiting www.usa.siemens.com/medical-pressroom.

Source: Business Wire

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