As a co-founder, VitalHealth Software signed an alliance agreement with several vendors that provide complementary solutions for disease management. The other members of the alliance are CarePoint (provides lifestyle coaching) and Fysicon (provides solutions for imaging, monitoring and haemodynamics). The goal of this Disease Management Alliance (DMA) is to deliver more harmonious solutions to the healthcare industry.

Chronic diseases represent a large portion of overall healthcare costs, especially in primary care. As a result, managing chronic disease requires high quality “disease management” solutions. The DMA will address those requirements with an integrated set of technology and service offerings, such as: electronic patient records, communication channels for care providers, imaging technology, self-management, education programs and financial advice. These services and technologies are necessities for new and emerging approaches for protocol based treatments and care for individual patients throughout a healthcare chain.

Transparent and protocol based care requires sophisticated and high quality communication and information systems. These systems need to provide both deep and wide functionality, and support multiple disciplines throughout the healthcare chain. Apart from that, they need to seamlessly integrate with the needs for preventive care and second line care.

Given the rapid changes in the healthcare industry, it is imperative that care provider organizations develop a clear vision and strategy for implementing new and effective services. To that effect, the DMA provides strategic advice to organizations like hospitals and family practice associations free of charge, as an initial catalyst to develop a clear strategy for providing quality care.

Look for additional news items solutions and service offerings by the Disease Management Alliance in the near future.