Sharp Community Medical Group Taps IBM and ActiveHealth Collaborative Care Solution to Help Doctors Deliver Better Patient Care

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Aug 05, 2010, 08:10 ET

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sharp Community Medical Group (SCMG) announced today it will employ a new Collaborative Care Solution unveiled today by IBM (NYSE: IBM) and ActiveHealth Management to connect the medical group's 200 primary care physicians and 500 specialists throughout San Diego County in order to help doctors to deliver more complete and accurate decisions about patient care.

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SCMG expects the new solution to change the way physicians and nurses access information throughout the hospital group's multiple electronic medical record systems by applying advanced analytics and clinical decision support to help give doctors better insight and work more closely across patient care teams.

"The relationship among Sharp Community Medical Group, IBM and ActiveHealth is really about transforming how we deliver patient care," said John Jenrette, M.D., CEO for Sharp Community Medical Group. "The current state of medicine today is one of paper records, fragmentation and not having the information doctors need at the right time and the patient isn't truly a part of their own healthcare. The work we are undertaking will create a better system that becomes patient-centric with better overall outcomes."

The Collaborative Care Solution analyzes multiple patient data sources to give doctors actionable decision support on their desktop – highlighting gaps in care, clinical research or potential drug interactions. It also helps doctors see trends in SCMG patient populations, for example by showing among 2,000 patients how many have uncontrolled diabetes, or how many women haven't had their mammography screening – a snapshot they haven't been able to see before.

SCMG is also working closely with IBM and ActiveHealth to redesign the way SCMG doctors deliver care to support emerging accountable care and patient-centered medical home models, which position physicians to be reimbursed based on the quality of care, not simply the number of procedures performed.

For teams of caregivers working with patients, the Collaborative Care Solution ensures primary care doctors, specialists, nurses, pharmacists and case managers have access to the same information, are able to communicate more frequently, and work together to make sure patients are followed up post-discharge and to bring patients into the loop by giving them more information about their medications and conditions. In the near future, it will allow SCMG patients to go online to schedule their appointments, get their medications refilled and even see their own medical records.

"This is going to revolutionize how we practice medicine," Jenrette said. "Instead of digging into volumes of paper to coordinate services, we're going to have that information available at our fingertips. It's going to make us all more efficient."

Collaborative Care Solution

The Collaborative Care Solution from IBM and ActiveHealth employs advanced analytics software to provide an innovative approach to patient care in which physicians can easily access and automatically analyze a patient's condition. Combining information from electronic medical records, claims, medication and lab data with ActiveHealth's evidence-based clinical decision support CareEngine® and delivering it through an IBM cloud computing platform allows doctors to deliver more complete and accurate decisions about patient care.

The Solution is built on combining IBM's Health Information Framework, IBM Initiate Exchange and advanced health analytics from Cognos 8 Business Intelligence and predictive analytics from IBM Research with ActiveHealth CareEngine® clinical decision support and the Active CareTeam(SM).

About ActiveHealth Management

ActiveHealth Management is a leading provider of health management services, including disease management, clinical decision support and personal health records. The company's solutions, all based on its patented CareEngine® System, help individuals receive quality care and help organizations like health plans, employers and government payors reduce medical costs. More than 19 million people nationwide benefit from ActiveHealth programs. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in New York City, ActiveHealth is an independent subsidiary of Aetna (NYSE: AET). For more information, please visit http://www.activehealth.net.

About IBM

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To see a video on the Solution for Collaborative Care go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYJ8EK-NMSI