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HealthMedia Creates 'Blue Ocean' for Disease Management and Behavioral Health Space

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 November 2006, 12:00 CST

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthMedia, Inc. announces today that is has extended its leadership position for online behavior change interventions in the areas of disease management and behavioral health. The strategy includes three components:

* HealthMedia's acquisition of MySelfHelp.com, the world's premier company for online behavioral health interventions including programs for depression and insomnia; * HealthMedia(R) Care(TM) for Diabetes, an online consumer-directed management intervention that addresses a broader scope of issues for people with diabetes including diabetes education, weight management, nutrition counseling, stress, depression, sleep disorders, doctor- patient relationships and medication compliance; and * A Productivity Dashboard built upon 18 months of data that adds productivity measurement as a scientifically validated component of total ROI in the areas of health and wellness, disease management, and behavioral health.

"It is not just about treating the highest acuity patients who have already experienced a costly medical event anymore," says HealthMedia CEO and President Ted Dacko. "We are accountable for the well being and cost management of every health consumer on the spectrum. For instance, if a person becomes at risk for diabetes, if a person develops diabetes, if a person becomes at risk for an event, our industry should be accountable. And, if the person has a catastrophic medical event, we should be accountable for controlling those costs. And we should be held accountable for keeping the person productive at work. It is time for service providers to own the responsibility for the entire care continuum, not just the people whose medical costs are already high. The industry success metrics must change."

Traditionally, the industry has focused the majority of its resources on the top 5% - 10% of individuals using telephonic interventions and providing generic materials and web content to the rest. In contrast, HealthMedia applies consistent high intensity interventions to the care continuum, and brings in partners to deliver telephonic or onsite programming for those that need it.

"In addition, consumers demand interventions that do not neatly fall into any single category. This creates the need for complementary products that cross multiple health issues. Our online behavior change interventions provide consistent, high-quality programming with outstanding efficacy rates, and increase the opportunities to create positive ROI for employers, health plans, pharmaceutical companies and behavioral health organizations," comments Dacko.

"The advantage of the Internet is the ability to reach and engage people at all acuity levels to deliver highly intensive interventions when and where the participant needs it in order to prevent or delay the onset of an acute event," continues Dacko. "The bottom line is that as long as total costs for conditions like diabetes are rising, the industry must strive to do more. HealthMedia is responding with a low cost, highly effective alternative."

Warren Todd, former Executive Director of the Disease Management Association of America and current President of the International Disease Management Association said, "HealthMedia has always been a true pioneer in operationalizing the power of behavior change science by providing unique, state-of-the-art behavior change interventions. They are master chefs at blending together behavioral science with technology vehicles to produce real second generation programs that have the potential to turn traditional ROI analysis upside down."

The acquisition of MySelfHelp adds a full complement of behavioral health products to the HealthMedia family. These behavioral health programs include depression, insomnia, binge eating, grief and others and are critical to managing a person's total health. Says Dr. Richard Bedrosian Ph.D., founder and president of MySelfHelp, "We have great respect for HealthMedia's programming and the tremendous outcomes their participants have achieved through the wellness, disease management and medication compliance programs. The spirit, values and constructs that power the MySelfHelp interventions are consistent with those at HealthMedia. We are thrilled to become a core component of their programming."

HealthMedia's commercial release of HealthMedia(R) Care(TM) for Diabetes is another in a series of high quality disease management programs that addresses the needs of people with diabetes across acuity levels. It goes far beyond diabetes education to cover weight, nutrition counseling, depression, medication compliance, sleep disorders, stress management and includes the doctor and pharmacist in the treatment plan.

HealthMedia's "blue ocean" approach: * Raises the viability of the web to reach patients of all acuity levels, focusing on issues like doctor-patient relationships, depression, sleep problems, medication compliance, potential improvements in work productivity and creating the ability to provide an emotional connection; * Eliminates the sole focus on ROI for high acuity patients; * Reduces the absolute reliance on telephonic counseling, reduces distribution of generic content on the web or in brochures and reduces overall program expense; and * Creates a reliance of behavior change science and a new ROI metric that incorporates productivity into the calculation.

Adding productivity improvements to medical cost reduction doubles the ability to produce positive returns. HealthMedia has shown that its online interventions can reduce self-reported work impairment due to health across its product set.

HealthMedia attributes its high efficacy and projected productivity gains to the quality of their web-based interventions, as opposed to simple generic web-site content. For each participant, HealthMedia's interventions address family and personal history, health beliefs, barriers to change, stages of change, and motivation and self-confidence. The result is a highly structured, longitudinal intervention that follows clinical guidelines, incorporates proven behavior science models, offers tools and resources and has quantifiable outcomes.

About HealthMedia, Inc.

HealthMedia, Inc. is the global leader in online delivery of behavior change interventions. HealthMedia's proven outcomes increase compliance, reduce medical utilization, and increase productivity in order to improve profitability for health plans, employers, pharmaceutical companies, and behavioral health organizations. With its powerful combination of proven behavior science, sophisticated technology and creative marketing, HealthMedia delivers individually tailored self-management interventions for health and wellness, disease management, medication compliance, and behavioral health. Notable clients include Kaiser Permanente, UPS, Cleveland Clinic, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard, GSK, and seven Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations across the United States. HealthMedia partners include APS, Corphealth, Harris Health Trends, Health Dialog, and SHPS. For more information, visit http://www.healthmedia.com/ .

About MySelfHelp.com

MySelfHelp.com is the world's premier company for online behavioral health interventions based upon behavioral science. MySelfHelp.com family of products include online programs for depression, insomnia, binge eating, grief, self-esteem, guilt, as well as caregiver support programs and tools. MySelfHelp.com is staffed by a team of highly experienced and reputable healthcare professionals and other experts who are devoted to helping people improve the quality of their lives. MySelfHelp.com has grown through relationships with the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Service.

HealthMedia, Inc.

CONTACT: Sally Hart Petersen of HealthMedia, Inc., +1-734-623-5485

Web site: http://www.healthmedia.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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