– Data Unveiled During Poster Presentation at the American Diabetes Association’s 76th Scientific Sessions –
– Collaboration in a Primary Care Setting Supports a New Model of Care –
BALTIMORE, June 11, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital health technology leader WellDoc® today announced results from a real-world study designed to evaluate the feasibility and reach of using a lay coach in conjunction with BlueStar® mobile prescription therapy to provide ongoing self-management support for people living with type 2 diabetes in a primary care setting. The data were featured via a poster presented today at the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) 76th Scientific Sessions, taking place now at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.
This study represented a unique collaboration among a technology company, an academic partner, a health plan innovation office and a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) practice. Lay coaches provided telephone support and BlueStar provided real-time coaching and guidance on a daily basis. BlueStar data enhanced coaches’ and patients’ conversations on varied aspects of diabetes self-management and facilitated PCMH care coordination.
“The high tech of digital health tools and the soft touch of peer support may appear very different, but they are actually very synergistic,” said Edwin Fisher, PhD, Global Director, Peers for Progress, Professor, Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “This feasibility study showed their integration is practical and well accepted by patients and clinical teams alike in a real-world primary care practice setting.”
Further commenting on the collaboration, Thomas McCarrick, MD, MBI, Chief Medical Officer/CMIO of Vanguard Medical Group, said, “Patient engagement through innovation is at the heart of successful primary care. Collaboration and integration among the care coordinator, health care provider, health coaching and digital health tools supports the patient and practice.”
Study results suggest 70 percent of participants sustained active engagement with the program and 78 percent sent analyzed reports of patient-generated data captured by BlueStar to their care team. Participants in the study engaged with BlueStar an average of 6.5 times per week and had an average of 7 coaching contacts during the 6-month study. Preliminary analyses indicated additional benefits in improved blood glucose control. Regardless of how long they were living with diabetes, study participants stated in the qualitative evaluation that the program was useful and that they would highly recommend the program to a family member or friends.
“This strong collaboration of key stakeholders shows that there is significant potential for use of digital therapeutics in engaging patients in their self-management, providing efficiencies to the clinical team and improving overall patient outcomes,” said Kevin McRaith, CEO of WellDoc. “Through collaborations like these, the outcomes achieved help WellDoc better understand how BlueStar can help transform clinical care in the new value-based healthcare environment.”
About WellDoc®
WellDoc is a digital health technology company that develops mobile solutions to drive behavioral and clinical change in chronic disease. WellDoc’s goal is to improve patient self-management and help physicians overcome gaps in the delivery system to improve clinical outcomes and decrease cost. WellDoc has commercialized BlueStar®, a digital therapeutic, for adults with type 2 diabetes. This therapeutic is designed to fill the support gap between patients and providers during the 8700 hours that individuals are living their lives outside the healthcare system. WellDoc has a proven track record of contributing published, peer-reviewed clinical evidence since 2008 and in June 2015 presented real-world patient engagement and clinical outcomes at the ADA 75th Scientific Sessions. BlueStar is recognized by the ADA on its website as the first and only in the new class of diabetes treatment known as Mobile Prescription Therapy. In a recently published Forbes blog, WellDoc was named among one of five healthcare tech companies to watch in 2016. For more information, visit www.WellDoc.com and www.BlueStarDiabetes.com.
About Vanguard Medical Group
Vanguard Medical Group was created as a regional primary group practice in January 2012 through a merger of three established, well-known and successful primary care practices in northern New Jersey (Changebridge Medical Associates, Cranford Family Practice and Town Medical Associates). In 2014, two additional practice sites, at North Haledon (formerly High Mountain Health) and Lincoln Park, joined Vanguard. In 2016, Vanguard opened a sixth location in Jersey City, NJ.
Many of the founding physicians have practiced for more than 20 years in their respective communities and are leaders in their local healthcare delivery systems. Although growth is an imperative, the physicians in Vanguard believe that a strong culture guided by a shared vision and governed by shared values must be at the core of this new organization.
Vanguard physicians have been at the forefront of primary care in New Jersey, and our staff includes current and past presidents of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians, residency directors, family practice department chairmen at our hospitals and faculty of our New Jersey medical schools.
About Peers for Progress
A program of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Peers for Progress is dedicated to promoting peer support in health, health care and prevention around the world. Through research, collaborative sharing of program and quality improvement resources, and supporting advocacy, it seeks to help the thousands of peer support programs around the world learn from each other, improve the services they offer, gain greater recognition of their work, and achieve integration of peer support as a normal, widely available component of high-quality health care. Peers for Progress has received support from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, the National Cancer Institute, and the Gillings Innovation Laboratory. For more information on Peers for Progress, visit www.peersforprogress.org, or follow us on Twitter at @peers4progress.