Preventice and VOX Telehealth introduce patient education solution to improve recovery from joint replacement surgery

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The aging Baby Boomer population is driving a significant increase in joint replacement procedures, with a projected increase of 673 percent in knee replacements and a 174 percent increase in hip replacements by 2030, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Representing one of the largest expenditures for the Medicare system, joint replacement procedures often contribute to costly hospital readmissions.

A new patient education platform introduced today through a collaboration between Preventice^TM, a leading developer of mHealth solutions and remote monitoring systems, and VOX Telehealth, a developer and provider of procedure-specific mobile solutions for patient education and recovery monitoring, is designed to engage patients and improve outcomes.

This new technology solution, called the VOX OrthoCare Program, is the first product of a previously announced collaboration between Preventice and VOX Telehealth that was designed to help both companies make a significant impact on the health care system through improved patient satisfaction and outcomes, reduced readmissions, more efficient care delivery, and reduced costs. The OrthoCare Program will be introduced this summer to patients at St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, Va., which is part of the Bon Secours Health System.

"Our focus on orthopedic care speaks to the documented need for better education and compliance with treatment and recovery plans in this specialty area," said David Brown, CEO of VOX Telehealth. "By rolling the program out through the Bon Secours Health System, we are partnering with a known innovator in orthopedic care who we believe can help bring this proprietary health care content to a large population of patients."

The OrthoCare program is built on the Preventice Care Platform and is designed to educate and engage surgical patients before and after procedures, as well as to provide proactive, clinical monitoring and reporting throughout their recovery. Preventice will provide both data monitoring capabilities and analytics for the OrthoCare program, which features targeted patient education content that was developed by VOX Telehealth.

"Mobile technology gives us the opportunity to communicate with, to teach, and to engage patients along the entire continuum of care," said Jon Otterstatter, co-founder, president and CEO of Preventice. "By creating a customizable, mobile environment for the OrthoCare Program, we are helping to close the patient engagement gap by reaching a significant population of surgical patients with the right information and tools, at the right time during the course of their treatment."

According to Brown, Bon Secours was chosen as the initial launch site for the OrthoCare program because the organization's premier surgeons and forward-thinking clinical care team have made it a leader in orthopedics; conducting more than 2,000 joint-replacement procedures a year. As part of the collaboration, Bon Secours will provide proprietary patient education content and will play a significant role in integrating content and recovery protocols into the program. 

"With every surgical procedure there is a risk for complications after discharge, which can drive hospital readmissions. But that risk can be reduced or even eliminated if the patient knows what to expect and how to follow their care plan," said John Turner, vice president of the Orthopedics Institute at Bon Secours. "In today's hospital environment, everyone—including doctors, patients and nursing staff—can benefit from technology that gives them easy, immediate access to tools and information to support their recovery and keep them out of the hospital."

About VOX Telehealth

VOX Telehealth is redefining the process of patient recovery and reintegration through the development of procedure-specific patient education and recovery programs that are delivered via mobile device.  Through daily engagement with the patient regarding pre-procedural education and preparation and post-procedural compliance and recovery, VOX Telehealth's 24/7 clinical care and monitoring team dramatically improve the satisfaction and compliance of the patient; driving positive outcomes and reduced costs to health providers and payers. VOX Telehealth is headquartered in Pennington, NJ. For more information, visit www.voxtelehealth.com.

About Preventice

Preventice, a leading developer of mobile health solutions and remote monitoring systems, aims to engage patients with their care plans and close the patient engagement gap--the half trillion dollar cost created by patients failing to follow individual care plans. Technology from Preventice creates a continuous connection and exchange of data between health care providers, life science companies and patients. Current applications from Preventice address high-cost and chronic conditions and health management opportunities, including prescription medication management, cardiac care, sleep apnea, diabetes management, and migraine headaches. Preventice is headquartered in Minneapolis, with offices in Rochester, Minn., and Fargo, N.D. For more information, visit www.preventice.com.

For more information contact:
Barbara Tabor, APR
+1-651-230-9192
[email protected]
Tabor Communications Consulting for Preventice

David Brown
+1-609-730-1425
[email protected]
VOX Telehealth, LLC

SOURCE Preventice