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Alere Medical CAD Program Receives Full NCQA Accreditation; CAD Program Complements Company's Specialized, Accredited Programs for Heart Failure, Asthma, COPD

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 September 2006, 12:00 CDT

Alere(R) Medical, one of the leading disease management companies, today announced that it has received Patient Oriented Full Accreditation from NCQA for its Heart Smart Solutions(TM) Program for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). The accreditation is an addition to Alere's existing accreditation for its heart failure program.

The Alere Heart Smart Solutions Program provides a comprehensive disease management program for patients with CAD. It focuses on several key areas including patient compliance and adherence with medication regimens, "knowing your numbers" and reduction of risk factors, and empowering patients to lead healthier and more satisfying lives. By combining medication monitoring, motivational interviewing techniques, behavioral science, and technology, the Alere Heart Smart Solutions Program reduces trends in myocardial infarctions, mortality rates, and CAD-related admissions while improving patients' quality of life.

"The success of our CAD program is driven by our clinical interventions, which are supported by evidence-based guidelines and are designed to promote collaboration between physicians and patients," said Angela Markwell, Alere's assistant vice president, clinical operations. "It includes collecting key cardiac risk numbers, phone calls from registered nurses to coach patients in managing their risk factors, and providing physicians with pre-visit reports that track the patient's health status and report their progress and results."

"Earning NCQA Accreditation is an important milestone in our commitment to providing a quality CAD program," said Laura Schoenweiler, MS, Alere's program manager for heart failure and CAD. "It's an independent, objective indication that our program provides the education, systems, and support necessary to ensure good outcomes and good care. That's reassuring to practitioners, as well as to patients and their families."

The standards for the NCQA DM Accreditation Program are organized into six categories: Program Content, Patient Service, Practitioner Service, Clinical Systems, Measurement and Quality Improvement, and Program Operation. NCQA Accreditation standards are developed with input from researchers in the field, the Disease Management Advisory Council (DMAC) and standing committees, employers, both purchasers and operators of disease management programs, state and federal regulators and other experts.

About Alere Medical Inc.

Alere Medical Inc. is a leader in specialized, disease management services focusing on select high cost diseases to maximize clients' return on investment. Alere produces unequalled clinical and cost saving results, by precision targeting the patients who will benefit most from specialty interventions. Alere's integrated care monitoring system identifies and monitors all medium- and high-risk patients, and prioritizes those patients to facilitate efficient workflow. With published outcomes that exceed those of any competitor, Alere Medical's disease management programs result in improved clinical outcomes for patients, and guaranteed savings for clients.

Alere Medical has received NCQA Patient Oriented Full Accreditation for its Heart Failure Disease Management Program, and Patient and Physician Oriented Full Accreditation for its Asthma and COPD Programs powered by National Jewish Research Center (2004-2007). The company has also been named three times to the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing private companies (2004-2006). For more information, visit www.alere.com or call 775-829-8885.

Source: Business Wire

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