University of Michigan Pediatric Telemedicine Weight Management Program Uses FruitStreet.com
Apr 20, 2015, 12:30 ET
NEW YORK and ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Fruit Street Health (Fruit Street), today announced that the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Pediatric Comprehensive Weight Management Center will be using FruitStreet.com for a telemedicine program.
The center, which was founded in 2007, will be using Fruit Street's software for an important new intervention. The University wished to provide patients access to their evidence-based pediatric weight management program without the need for families to make frequent trips to Ann Arbor. To achieve this goal they faced the challenge of needing a secure means to deliver their individual and group sessions via video conferencing and to collect activity and nutrition information from patients easily between visits.
Providers chose to use Fruit Street's Virtual Lifestyle Medicine Clinic solution, which has been designed specifically for healthcare providers that want to monitor the lifestyle of their patients and conduct virtual consultations on Fruit Street's HIPAA compliant FDA-registered video solution. The solution will also be fully integrated with leading wearable technologies such as FitBit, Withings, Jawbone UP, iHealth Labs, and the upcoming Apple Watch. This will enable clinicians to monitor lifestyle data from their patients such as sleep, exercise, diet, weight, blood pressure, and blood glucose data.
The center has a team of experienced providers who will use the platform including physicians, dietitians, psychologist, social worker, exercise physiologist and physician assistants all dedicated to the evaluation and treatment of adolescents with obesity through their MPOWER (Michigan Pediatric Outpatient Weight Evaluation & Reduction) CONNECT program.
Susan Woolford, M.D., M.P.H., who is a pediatrician and the medical director of the weight management program, commented on the initiative with Fruit Street stating, "Childhood obesity is a significant public health concern. Many children with excess weight will grow up to be severely obese adults and will suffer from obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Our goal is to help teens and their families improve their health through lifestyle changes and we believe that well designed communications technology can help us connect with our patients and increase the likelihood of our patients achieving success. Fruit Street is the software solution we chose to use to accomplish this."
Woolford's team will use FruitStreet.com, which combines telemedicine, mobile applications, and wearable monitors and can be used in conjunction with a weight management protocol to promote healthy lifestyle choices among patients.
Laurence Girard, CEO and founder of Fruit Street Health, stated, "We are excited about this initiative with the University of Michigan and hope to develop a new more cost-effective model for the care of obese patients that hopefully helps millions of patients improve their health. This initiative is in-line with Fruit Street's focus as a public benefit corporation to use technology to help people change their lifestyle and ultimately improve their weight."
Asif Ali, CMO of Fruit Street Health commented, "The ability to have a positive impact on treating childhood obesity will help these pediatric patients reduce their risk for chronic diseases that they will face later in life. This aligns with Fruit Street's mission to treat and prevent disease using telemedicine and wearable technology."
This news comes on the heels of last month's announcement that Fruit Street has launched its Fruit Street Wellness Clinic solution for healthcare providers. Additionally, Fruit Street recently announced its formation as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation ("B Corp"), as well as the appointment of leading physicians to its Advisory Board.
For more information on Fruit Street Health, please visit www.fruitstreet.com.
ABOUT FRUIT STREET HEALTH:
Fruit Street Health is a new digital wellness and telemedicine platform which helps patients live a healthier lifestyle while enabling healthcare providers to connect with patients using telemedicine and wearable mobile technologies. For more details, please visit www.fruitstreet.com.
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SOURCE Fruit Street Health