New Web Application Allows Healthcare Decision Makers to Explore Projected Effects of Various Treatments and Interventions

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Archimedes Inc., a healthcare modeling company, announced today the launch of the Archimedes Outcomes Analyzer (AOA), a web application that expands access to data sets generated by the Archimedes Model, a large-scale simulation model that calculates clinical and cost outcomes, and answers complex healthcare questions. The Outcomes Analyzer was funded by a grant from the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), which seeks innovative ideas that could transform the future of health and healthcare. The Outcomes Analyzer allows healthcare decision makers to compare and contrast information about costs and clinical effectiveness of various interventions and treatments.

"Decision makers – especially those in the public sector – who make healthcare decisions that can affect millions of Americans often lack the detailed, patient-specific information needed to evaluate the effectiveness of various treatments, procedures and protocols," said Nancy Barrand, Special Advisor on Program Development at RWJF's Pioneer Portfolio. "By providing access to the Archimedes Model, we can change that. This means, for example, a Medicaid Director could use the Archimedes Outcomes Analyzer to find out how to improve care and reduce costs for the low-income populations it serves."

AOA's online interface allows users to explore Archimedes simulation datasets and analyze and compare the rates of health events and the effects of different interventions in different populations. The first Archimedes simulation dataset to be made publicly available is the Cardio-Metabolic Risk (CMR) dataset, which can be used to examine the effects of a wide range of prevention interventions for people at risk for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases such as stroke, atherosclerosis and diabetes.  

"In today's healthcare system, decision makers increasingly need scientifically-based information on the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of treatments, procedures and protocols," said David Eddy, M.D., Ph.D., founder of Archimedes, Inc. "The Outcomes Analyzer provides access to an unrivaled store of data which will help people make better decisions about care."

The Outcomes Analyzer is the first step toward the development of ARCHeS (ARChimedes Healthcare Simulator), a web-based interface and delivery platform for the Archimedes Model which will enable healthcare organizations and policy leaders to reliably and quickly run their own queries on the health and economic outcomes of specific interventions and treatments for patients, providers and payers. ARCHeS is the focus of the RWJF Pioneer Portfolio grant awarded to Archimedes in 2007.  

Archimedes will host a webcast and conference call to discuss the AOA on Thursday, October 28, 2010, 3:00 – 4:30 PM EDT. To register, please visit www.xtalks.com/xto421ArchimedesDemo.ashx.

About Archimedes

Archimedes Inc. is an independent healthcare modeling organization. Its proprietary technology - the Archimedes Model - is a carefully validated and calibrated mathematical model of human physiology, diseases, interventions and healthcare systems.

The Archimedes Model is designed to help people understand the implications of their decisions and for the last 15 years has been relied upon to answer complex, real world questions for health plans, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and other organizations. Archimedes, a Kaiser Permanente Innovation, is based in San Francisco, California. For more information on the company, visit our website at www.archimedesmodel.com.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and its Pioneer Portfolio

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and healthcare issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and healthcare of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. Projects in the Pioneer Portfolio are future-oriented and look beyond conventional thinking to explore solutions at the cutting edge of health and healthcare.  For more information, visit our website at www.rwjf.org/pioneer.

SOURCE Archimedes Inc.