December 2007

The year 2007 has been an important year for VitalHealth, with many rapid developments. This year we kicked off several large scale implementations of our integrated healthcare network and disease management software. In each of these implementations, our software has proven itself to be a powerful and flexible solution. And more importantly, it enabled our customers to significantly improve efficiency and quality of care! This newsletter summarizes several noteworthy events of the last several months. We’d like to thank you for your interest in VitalHealth during the past year, and are looking forward to keeping you informed with more exciting developments in 2008!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us.

The VitalHealth Team
December 2007

Vital for COPD - Astma

Developed in close cooperation with leading lung specialists and Diagnosis4Health (VitalHealth Software's implementation partner), Vital for COPD-Asthma is our second disease management solution for integrated care networks. The product was launched on November 8, 2007, during the CAHAG convention in Utrecht (Netherlands). Vital for COPD-Asthma adheres to published, standard guidelines, such as NHG, Gold Guidelines and GINA. The product is based on the same architecture as Vital for Diabetes, our first disease management solution launched in May of 2007. With the release of the new product, an important step has been made towards multi-chronic disease management in integrated care networks.

The feature set of Vital for COPD-Asthma is primarily focused on the treatment process itself. It includes several questionnaires, such as diagnostic, functional and as well as children with Asthma. It also captures spirometry test results and offers extensive risk-analysis features. Vital for COPD-Astma supports multiple roles and disciplines within an integrated care network, including family practice caregivers, lung specialists, physiotherapists and dieticians. The solution will be rolled out to 10 practices in the next few weeks.

New release Vital for Diabetes 2.1.4

On November 29, VitalHealth Software released an enhanced version of its Vital for Diabetes solution. Amongst numerous other improvements and additions, this version adds the following capabilities:

• EDIFACT based information exchange with Hospital Information Systems (HIS)
• Referrals and information feedback to authorized users in the healthcare chain, for both primary and secondary care
• Support for the Ankle-Arm (Brachial) Index
• A "Education and Therapy" section, including decision support for lifestyle coaching and therapy
• A summary overview targeted at and to be given to the patient
• Role based reports with specific information for the various disciplines involved in primary and secondary care
• The option for users of Diagnosis for Health's DZP offering to switch to the web based Vital for Diabetes with the push of a button

Vital for Diabetes is quickly evolving into the most complete and robust solution for diabetes chain care and disease management.

Mayo Clinic adopts VitalHealth software for Point of Care Decision Support

Late November an important milestone was reached at the Mayo Clinic in the USA, with a positive evaluation of the initial phase of implementing a VitalHealth solution for Point of Care Decision Support. The solution collects relevant patient information from the vast Mayo electronic medical record via web services based integrations and presents this information in a single portal page. Next to that, the solution generates and presents a list of rule based recommended actions for Diabetes care and general preventive services. The solution enables a significant improvement in “patient throughput” while at the same time ensuring optimal, guideline based quality of care. Currently the solution is used for about 1000 patient visits per day. In the coming months, this will gradually increase to about 2500 patients per day.  Also, the solution will gradually be expanded with support for additional chronic diseases, starting with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

Transition from the D4H Diabetes Care Protocol offering to the web-based Vital for Diabetes

In close cooperation with Diagnosis4Health, VitalHealth Software has released an automated conversion tool that can be used by family care practices to transition from D4H's Diabetes Care Protocol product to VitalHealth Software's web-based Vital for Diabetes. Vital for Diabetes not only includes all functionality offered by the Diabetes Care protocol product, it also significantly extends the feature set. For instance, it adds functionality for referrals to primary and secondary care givers, several accounting features, powerful graphing of data, and patient self-management. An additional benefit is the fact that Vital for Diabetes is part of a larger family of multi-disease management products for integrated care networks, all based on the common architecture of the VitalHealth Platform. Examples of these are Vital for COPD-Asthma and Vital to Quit Smoking.

For additional information, please contact Immie Boomgaardt, business development manager for Diagnosis4Health, at phone number +31 (8) 65-7840, or via email: immie.boomgaardt@d4h.info.

VitalHealth supporting healthcare in Africa with Vital for Ethiopia

Starting November 2007, VitalHealth is supporting a third world development project in Ethiopia, by providing its software for recording patient medical records. So far, a community of 1200 residents has received a medical evaluation by Geriska Poortman, a Dutch pediatrician of the Harderwijk hospital.

Families of 6 persons or more, an annual income of no more than 300 dollars, a single bathroom for 30 families and a single well: these are the conditions where the organization “The Well” provides aid with the financial support of the Reborgh Foundation. The Well started its aid project in the little village of “My Dimu” in Ethiopia. The project has four parallel areas of focus: infrastructure, healthcare, education and economic development. In November this year, the Dutch pediatrician Geriska Poortman travelled to Ethiopia to perform a medical evaluation of the residents of My Dimu. In cooperation with an Ethiopian physician, she saw 1200 patients, of which 700 were children. Patients with acute medical conditions immediately received medication, or were referred to a local hospital. To initiate a structural improvement in the local healthcare, an electronic medical record was created for each patient seen.

One of the social objectives of VitalHealth Software is to apply its knowledge, experience and software offerings to the need for healthcare in underdeveloped countries. With that objective in mind, a web-based Electronic Medical Record solution was modeled using the VitalHealth Platform, in order to support the electronic needs of healthcare projects.

After returning to the Netherlands, Geriska Poortman intends to continue to provide care to a number of patients with more serious conditions. To that effect, the online nature of the EMR solution enables her to easily provide her input to the local Ethopian physicians. The solution itself is hosted in the Netherlands, with high standards for data security and availability. In the future, The Well Foundation intends to use the EMR for additional healthcare aid related projects, as it enables them to provide better care with fewer people.

Vitalhealth participates in PAZIO

Based on our vision and experience in healthcare management, VitalHealth has joined the development of a national healthcare portal initiative. The unique aspect of PAZIO is that it not only focuses on the patient, but actually puts the patient in the driver’s seat. PAZIO offers a single online electronic environment for:

• Subscribing to eHealth services
• Providing the patient with relevant information to actively participate in the care process
• Allowing the patient to view and edit a Personal Health Record
• Enhancing care with health management functions

PAZIO will provide significant added value to the patient and the care givers, such as:

• Personalized and verified (by UMC Utrecht) health and disease information
• eConsult for secure and direct advice from professional caregivers
• Research Online for digital participation in diagnosing issues
• Patient self-management combined with disease management, including functionality for:
  o Access to electronic medical record information and graphs with treatment recommendations
  o Updating of personal logs related to treatment
  o Online questionnaires for self-testing
  o Profile management

PAZIO is a cooperation between UMC Utrecht, VitaValley, Leidsche Rijn Julius Gezondheidscentra (LRJG), VitalHealth Software and Mediportaal.

About VitalHealth

With offices in the Netherlands, the United States and India, VitalHealth Software (www.vitalhealthsoftware.com) was established as a joint venture between the Mayo Clinic (USA) and the Noaber Foundation(NL). VitalHealth develops innovative disease management solutions for integrated healthcare networks.

For additional information about VitalHealth Software or VitalHealth solutions, please contact Geert Mol via email: gmol@vitalhealthsoftware.com, or via telephone at +31 (318) 65-7730. We also invite you to visit our download page.

To stop receiving our newsletter, send an email to news@vitalhealthsoftware.com with subject line “UNSUBSCRIBE”.