Navigating Cancer Announces Milestones Related to Patient Education Program

SEATTLE, Jan. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Navigating Cancer, the leading provider of oncology specific patient portals, announces milestones related to their Patient Education and Medication Adherence Program launched in early 2013. Navigating Cancer's Patient Education Program allows cancer programs to digitize their education and establish intuitive rules to automatically deliver information to individual patients based on their diagnosis and medications, without requiring additional work from staff members.  Additionally, the program allows material to be delivered at specific points during the patient's treatment journey — after diagnosis to aid understanding, or during treatment milestones to help patients learn how to take their medications and manage side effects to improve adherence and compliance.  In 2014, HITECH Meaningful Use Stage 2 requires practices to use certified EHR technology to provide personalized patient education, a change from Stage 1 where the patient education measure was optional. Navigating Cancer also supports the Infobutton standard for patient education as required for Stage 2.

Navigating Cancer's Patient Education Program achieved the following in 2013:

• 97% of providers met HITECH Meaningful Use Stage 1 requirement for patient education
• 97% of patients at participating practices signed a HIPAA authorization to opt in to the program, indicating a high preference for receiving personalized education from their providers
• Nearly 300 different educational programs were implemented to educate specific cancer patients with content from the National Cancer Institute, pharmaceutical manufacturers and other cancer specific partners. 74% of registered patients received education specific to their diagnosis and/or medications.

"Our goals for everything we do are two-fold: to empower cancer patients and make it easier for cancer programs to provide quality cancer care. We're pleased that this program accomplishes both," said Gena Cook, CEO of Navigating Cancer.  "Patients receive the right information at the right time from their care provider, which helps them participate and take an active role in their care and recovery."

"This program has really improved our educational efforts for our patients and it's been less work for our staff.  The fact that pharmaceutical companies are participating has helped us meet federal incentives and created a great experience for our patients," said Kim Woofter, CEO, Michiana Hematology Oncology.

About Navigating Cancer

Navigating Cancer's mission is to empower cancer survivors and healthcare professionals to improve the quality and efficiency of care. Navigating Cancer's Patient Engagement Portal provides cancer programs with a branded, online extension of their care model to engage their patients while meeting patient centered care requirements. The company was founded in 2008 by technology and healthcare veterans and is based in Seattle, Washington.

SOURCE Navigating Cancer