Sharp HealthCare: Reducing 30-day Hospital Readmissions for Congestive Heart Failure Patients by Utilizing Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Technology

3/30/12

Sharp HealthCare, a CTA RPM grantee, utilized Cardiocom’s telescale technology and health coaching in two Sharp hospitals to help patients better manage their congestive heart failure condition. In addition to improving health outcomes, the program resulted in decreasing readmissions for the intervention group by half, from 20.7% to 10% when matching patients with similar characteristics.

A series of new videos demonstrate how CTA’s mHealth grantee, the Front Porch Center for Technology Innovation and Wellbeing, is effectively utilizing cell phone text message medication reminders to help older adults adhere to their medication regime.

February CTA Newsletter Released: CTA Grantee Successfully Completes Care Transitions Project, Telehealth Strategies for Dual Eligibles

2/29/12

The February newsletter discusses the successful completion of the Tech4Impact CTA grantee project by The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, that implemented The Care Transitions Coaching Tool to facilitate the delivery and evaluation of the Care Transitions Intervention® (CTI). Also included is an issue brief discussing telehealth strategies for Dual Eligibles derived from successful telehealth-based programs that could enable health plans to improve health, improve the patient experience and access, and reduce costs. This issue also includes a presentation from NEHI, Atrius Health and the Utah Beacon Community discussing provider engagement strategies within their Telehealth and mHealth CTA grant projects, respectively, as part of a CTA-ONC Consumer eHealth Affinity Group Webinar. In addition, this newsletter highlights two articles from January, including the top 10 articles, reports and initiatives of CTA that drew the most interest from readers in 2011, as well as a brief from the Center for Connected Health Policy and the California Telemedicine and eHealth Center describing the implications of The Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011 around what the law does and does not do.

January CTA Newsletter Released: CTA's Top Ten of 2011, The Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011 Policy Brief

1/31/12

The January newsletter discusses the top 10 articles, reports and initiatives from the Center for Technology and Aging that drew the most interest from readers in 2011. The newsletter also includes a presentation from Centura Health at Home’s (CHAH) Erin Denholm discussing the implementation of the organization’s Remote Patient Monitoring Project as part of a CTA-ONC Consumer eHealth Affinity Group Webinar. In addition, Mario Gutierrez of the Center for Connected Policy provided insight on the importance of and potential implications for California’s Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011. This issue also includes a policy brief by the Center for Connected Health Policy and the California Telemedicine and eHealth Center describing the implications of The Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011 around what the law does and does not do. Also highlighted is a California HealthCare Foundation sponsored report on the challenges of identifying high-risk patients and matching them to the most appropriate technology-based care intervention. Dr. Jeremy Rich, from HealthCare Partners, a CTA RPM grantee, co-authors the paper and discusses how RPM can be a useful intervention for high-risk COPD patients.

This project demonstrates how telehealth, including video conferencing, can cost-effectively improve access to care for a high-medical-need population that is socially isolated, geographically dispersed, and experiences language and cultural barriers to care. In this project, specially trained pharmacists provided medication therapy management services to nearly 100 older Cambodian-Americans. Results: Pharmacists identified 604 potentially harmful medication-related problems (MRPs). During the 12-month project, 93% of MRPs were resolved, medication adherence behaviors improved 23%, and therapy outcome goals were achieved 24% more often. The projected ROI from avoided hospitalizations and ER visits was approximately $6 saved for every $1 spent on the project.