Alere Health Executives and Clients Share Insights in How to Enroll and Engage Participants in Health and Wellness Programs

ATLANTA, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Sharing best-in-class strategies on how to enroll and engage employees and health plan members in health and wellness programs will be the key focus of a panel discussion featuring clients of Alere Health at the Care Continuum Alliance's (CCA – formerly DMAA:  Care Continuum Alliance) Forum 10 & Integrated Care Summit, held October 13 – 15 in Washington, D.C.  Alere client leaders from The Procter & Gamble Company and Scripps Health will share their experiences and strategies for enrollment and engagement during the panel discussion scheduled for Thursday, October 14, 1:45 to 2:45 p.m.

"Americans continue to have far too high levels of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses," notes Tom Underwood, CEO of Alere and moderator of the panel presentation, Enrollment & Engagement: The Bottom Line.  "We have to find new and better ways to get people enrolled and engaged in the programs that can help improve health, quality of life, and ultimately help lower costs.  Healthcare programs that are personalized for individuals, offer smart approaches to education and incentives as well as better connectivity and communication between everyone – physicians, employers, health plans and patients – are critical to making better health a reality for Americans."

Additional Alere presentations at The Forum 10 & Integrated Care Summit will include:

• Toward a Collaborative Care Delivery Model: The Role of Population Health Improvement Organizations in the Patient-Centered Medical Home - Thursday, Oct. 14, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• Darren Schulte, MD, MPP, vice president of Collaborative Care Solutions for Alere Health, and Greg Sharp, MD, co-founder of Ideal Family Healthcare, will discuss how health IT solutions can improve population health.

• Tectonic Changes in Health IT & the Clinical Groupware Collaborative: Opportunities for Population Health Management - Thursday, Oct. 14, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
• Steve Adams, CEO and Founder of RMD Networks, now a division of Alere, and Vincent Kuraitis, JD, MBA, principal of Better Health Technologies will share strategic and collaborative options to thrive under health reform legislation and how clinical groupware collaborative efforts can improve population health.

• Poster Presentation, The Effectiveness of Complex Case Management in a Medicare Population, Conference Exhibit Hall
• Jianping Zhu, PhD, author of poster and healthcare informatics analyst with Alere, will answer questions during the poster exhibition from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on October 14, 2010. The poster is available for viewing throughout the conference.
• See outcomes data from a successful complex care management program for high-risk Medicare populations and find out how telephonic support reduces hospitalization, readmissions and overall utilization.

Alere is a Chairman Sponsor of The Forum 10 & Integrated Care Summit, an industry leading conference promoting health and wellness in the nation.  For more information and a full schedule of presentations, visit www.carecontinuum.org

About the Care Continuum Alliance:

The Care Continuum Alliance (CCA) aligns all stakeholders providing services along the care continuum toward the goal of population health improvement. These care continuum services include strategies such as health and wellness promotion, care management and care coordination. The CCA promotes the role of population health improvement in raising the quality of care, improving health outcomes and reducing preventable health care costs for the well and those at risk of or with chronic conditions. Activities in support of these efforts include advocacy, research and the promotion of best practices in care management. The Care Continuum Alliance represents more than 200 corporate and individual stakeholders—including wellness, disease and care management organizations, pharmaceutical manufacturers and benefits managers, health information technology innovators, biotechnology innovators, employers, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals, and researchers and academicians. Visit the Care Continuum Alliance online at www.carecontinuum.org.

About Alere:

Alere Health is the health management services business of Alere Inc. (previously Inverness Medical Innovations) (NYSE: ALR).  Alere, a Latin verb, meaning "to care for" or "to support", offers the most patient-centered health management services available from a single provider in the industry. Alere provides health interventions that cover an individual's entire lifespan, from pre-cradle to end-of-life care, as well as the continuum from wellness and prevention, to total health management of the individual for those having chronic illnesses.  Alere's continuum of services begins with genetic testing, preconception, pregnancy, NICU and first year of life services; continues with lifelong programs focused on health, wellness and the management of chronic conditions such as heart failure, COPD, and asthma, up to the complex care management required in end-of-life care.  For more information regarding Alere, please visit www.alere.com.

SOURCE Alere Health