GlaxoSmithKline, Community Care of North Carolina harness "small data" to improve patient care and reduce health care costs

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Sept. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- GlaxoSmithKline plc [LSE/NYSE: GSK] and Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC) today announced the initiation of a new approach to analyzing health information that allows healthcare providers and payers, with the touch of a button, to analyze patients' medication challenges in real time to determine effective ways to overcome barriers to delivering quality care.

Counter to healthcare trends focused on "big data," this pilot's "small data" approach will focus on ensuring providers have access to select information, such as a patient's prescription fill history and hospital admission and discharge data, that is widely available throughout the healthcare system and has been found to predict when a patient is at risk of a negative health outcome.  The service utilizes "prescriptive analytics" to analyze the data and determine suggested interventions that are most likely to facilitate better patient engagement and ultimately, improved patient outcomes. Only appropriate healthcare providers will have access to this insightful information, and the goal of the project is to assist these healthcare professionals in determining – and responding to – medication-related problems that often lead patients to use their medicine incorrectly, or to not adhere to the treatment regimen prescribed by their doctor. 

"In today's healthcare system, we're hindered by a lack of connectivity and a common picture of patient behaviors.  In areas where data are available, we've struggled to determine how to most efficiently and effectively analyze it to get us to actionable solutions," said Allen Dobson, Jr., MD, President and CEO of CCNC.  "This often results in a 'one-size-fits-all approach' to optimizing medication use and treatment adherence.  This new approach provides a roadmap of sorts, grounded in a better understanding of a patient's overall medical condition, behaviors, and motivations, to help providers treat a large number of at-risk patients in a more highly individualized way."

The project leverages CCNC's decades of experience providing analytically-based, community care to develop guidance for patient engagement and interventions that are accessible in real-time, by a range of healthcare providers in a range of different settings, including key transition points in care, such as when a patient is discharged from the hospital.  GSK will contribute expertise in comprehensive medication management, as well as knowledge of data analytics and IT systems.  

Importantly, the service's capabilities aim to go beyond traditional analytics and predictive modelling to provide logistics support across multiple healthcare providers in multiple settings of care so as to better coordinate the delivery of medication optimization services wherever the patient may be. Additionally, the engine is designed to minimize or eliminate integration and interoperability challenges often experienced when implementing today's healthcare analytics systems.

CCNC has begun utilizing the approach across its existing network.  Additionally, CCNC and GSK have expanded the reach of the pilot to other diverse markets.  Specifically they have entered into an agreement to test the approach as part of a Community Medication Management Collaborative within the hospital, primary care, home health and behavioral health settings in Bloomington, Indiana.  Specific tools will be refined during the fourth quarter of 2013 based on the initial application within the Community Medication Management Collaborative.

"We believe the product will be integral to achieving the goals of the Community Medication Management Collaborative between North Carolina and Indiana.  The pilot will foster rapid cycle development of the product by incorporating additional real-world insights back into the new analytics engine quickly, greatly refining the tool in a short time frame," said Michael Melby, MS, FASHP Director of Pharmacy and Clinical Informatics, Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital. 

When patients do not adhere to their treatment regimens, it places a significant burden on the US healthcare system.  It is estimated that one-third to one-half of all patients do not take their medications properly, costing the U.S. health system an estimated $290 billion in preventable spending each year.[i]  Additionally, each year, a typical patient who does not take medication as prescribed visits the doctor at a rate more than three times higher than a patient who does, costing the healthcare system thousands more dollars.  The issue of medication adherence can be especially problematic in Medicare patients with multiple chronic conditions, who see on average 13 different physicians and fill 50 different prescriptions during the course of a year.[ii]  Often the details that represent a patient's overall health condition are not centrally located, resulting in multiple providers with limited knowledge of a patient's prescription fill history and medication adherence habits.

"If we want the US healthcare system to be focused on ensuring quality, lowering healthcare costs, and enhancing the health of both individuals and society, we need to redefine how we deliver care to millions of patients," said Jack Bailey, Senior Vice President, Policy, Payers and Vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline.  "Patient-centered tools grounded in data-driven analytics will help all of us work together to better manage care for patients, and will ultimately result in a healthier and less costly healthcare system for us all."

GlaxoSmithKline – one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies – is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.  For further information in the U.S. go to us.gsk.com, follow us on twitter.com/GSKUS or visit our blog (www.morethanmedicine.us.gsk.com/blog/).

About CCNC - CCNC is a community-based, private sector non-profit that takes a population management approach to improving health care and containing costs for North Carolina's most vulnerable populations. Through its 14 local network partners, CCNC creates "medical homes" for 1.3 million individuals, including Medicaid beneficiaries, individuals eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, privately-insured employees and uninsured people in all 100 counties in North Carolina.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
Under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, GSK cautions investors that any forward-looking statements or projections made by GSK, including those made in this announcement, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that may affect GSK' s operations are described under 'Risk Factors' in the 'Business Review' in the company' s Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2012.

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[i] New England Health Institute. NEHI Research Shows Patient Medication Nonadherence Costs Health Care System $290 Billion Annually. Available at: http://bit.ly/d6E3Ce. Accessed 6.18.13.

[ii] The Patient- Centered Medical Home-Integrating comprehensive medication management to optimize patient outcomes. Available at http://www.accp.com/docs/positions/misc/CMM%20Resource%20Guide.pdf. Accessed 9.15.13.

SOURCE GlaxoSmithKline plc