InforMedix Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB:IFMX) today announced they are teaming up with Audiopoint, also of Rockville, to provide advanced voice-enabled communications, automatic speech recognition, and medication compliance and persistence information services in real-time on mobile devices; to improve medication compliance and persistence, which reduces healthcare costs and increases pharmaceutical company and pharmacy sales revenues. Audiopoint is a leading provider of innovative voice and data services for consumer-oriented businesses in the Fortune 500.
According to eyeforpharma.com and the Managing Director of Eularis Dr. Andrew Bates, medication non-adherence costs the pharmaceutical industry estimated $30 B annually in lost revenues. Acquiring new patients can be six times more costly than retaining current patients, so by increasing focus on medication adherence can translate into additional top line and bottom line revenues to pharmaceutical manufacturers. In fact, a recent report from MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that improving customers’ medication adherence by 25% can benefit a community pharmacy with increased gross revenues of $1.7 M, or gross profits of $400,000 a year.
InforMedix’s Med-eXpert and Med-ePhone systems provide real-time, customizable, actionable information about the medication adherence and health status of chronically ill patients using any cellular or home telephone service. The joint technology combines Audiopoint’s world class, consumer-centric voice portal with InforMedix’s Med-eXpert intelligent system to link patient data with each of the key stakeholders administering care including family members, pharmacists, caregivers and physicians.
Under the agreement, InforMedix and Audiopoint will market InforMedix’s Med-ePhone System to both companies’ existing and future non-healthcare corporate and consumer customers. The newly combined services will be marketed to pharmaceutical manufacturers interested in improving brand compliance and persistence; pharmacy customers seeking improved medication and care plan adherence; and chronic care management companies who are searching for technologies to improve health outcomes and reduce costs. Additionally, the Audiopoint solution will provide a revenue generating Ad Model. This unique opportunity to communicate with the consumer is a bright spot in a declining advertising market due to its granular targetability and extremely high ROI.
“We are excited to be working with InforMedix to combine our proven voice data solutions – from our voice-enabled webpages, Notifier broadcast services, to merc alert emergency notification – with InforMedix’s scientifically proven Med-eXpert and Med-ePhone Systems to deliver the industry’s first end-to-end solution that provides a very high value, marketing communications solution for large-scale consumer programs,” said Brian Lichorowic, CEO of Audiopoint.
Bruce A. Kehr, M.D., CEO of InforMedix, commented, “We are pleased to be working with Audiopoint to provide a unique combination of advanced marketing communications and medication adherence information solutions using mobile phones over the Internet to maximize the return-on-investment to our customers.”
In 2005, research by Arar published in the Journal Informatics in Primary Care reported that a phone reminder system used in a therapy setting for which forgetting to take medication is a key issue underlying issue can substantially improve the return-on-investment. Even if just 6.5% of a patient population participates in the program and increases their adherence rate from the typical 40% to 85%, using a drug that generates 2 million prescriptions a year at a cost of $80 a month could lead to increased revenues of $45 million. If the intervention costs $5 per patient per month, companies could potentially realize an ROI of upwards of 300% to 600%. Balance that with fact that pharmaceutical manufacturers spent, according to ProQuest, more than $4.2 billion in direct-to-consumer advertising in 2005, and that amount is accelerating upward.
For more information about the technology or to purchase, contact InforMedix at 301-984-1566 or go to http://www.informedix.com
About InforMedix
InforMedix provides its patented Med-eXpert(TM) information system providing real-time, customizable and actionable information on the medication adherence and health status of chronically ill outpatients.
Two portable appliances are used by patients to follow their medication and care plans, and to record and transmit medication adherence and health status information to the Med-eXpert System. The Med-eMonitor(TM), a portable, interactive, “smart pillbox,” which stores and/or manages up to 25 medications, while tracking patients’ adherence to their medications and care plans, and The Med-ePhone(TM), which prompts, monitors and records medication adherence and health status assessment delivered to patients over mobile phones and landlines using Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVRS). Mission-critical information can be uniquely customized for each customer’s and patient’s needs at both individual and population levels to more effectively and efficiently reduce healthcare costs, improve health outcomes and increase patient satisfaction. InforMedix Solutions consistently achieve medication and care plan adherence rates of 90% or more across multiple chronic disease populations, as documented by academic medical center trials and peer-reviewed journal articles. For more information, visit http://www.informedix.com
About Audiopoint
Audiopoint is a leading provider of innovative voice data services for consumer-oriented businesses, offering design, development and deployment of large scale Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) software and services, voice-enabled marketing and call center automation. Established in 1998, Audiopoint launched the industry’s first voice portal in 1999 and has since established long-term partnerships with numerous Fortune 500 companies to provide advanced applications for mobility access. Audiopoint is a privately held company based in Rockville, Maryland with executive and R&D offices in Middleburg, Virginia. For more information, visit www.audiopoint.net.
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