NEW YORK – ActiveHealth Management has released the results of a study that show compliance to clinical alerts based on evidence-based medical guidelines is greater when the alerts are sent to both the physician and patient.

“The extremely important lesson here for anybody who’s trying to improve healthcare outcomes is to involve both patients and the whole team of healthcare professionals,” said Stephen Rosenberg, MD, senior vice president of outcomes research at ActiveHealth Management and the study’s lead researcher.

The study, which was published in the November issue of The American Journal of Management Care, revealed that compliance increased by 12.5 percent when clinical alerts were sent to patients.

The greatest increase in compliance was seen in alerts for recommended screening, diagnostic and monitoring tests, he said.

Rosenberg noted that most of ActiveHealth Management’s clients believe and understand that using the CareEngine System, which compares aggregated claims data against evidence-based medical guidelines, not only improves healthcare quality but saves money that would have gone towards such things as duplicative tests.

ActiveHealth Management is a subsidiary of Aetna, whose members receive clinical alerts, or Care Considerations.