BOSTON – The Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, has received funding from the Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund to develop a home-based glucose monitoring system for patients with diabetes.
The amount of the funding was not disclosed.
Boston-based Partners HealthCare is an integrated health system that includes Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital as well as community hospitals, health centers and a physician network.
This new initiative, Diabetes Connected Health, will use available online technology to improve diabetes management and treatment outcomes. The center will create a secure Web-based system to integrate home-based glucose monitoring results within the clinical workflow of diabetes care.
Patients from six Massachusetts General Hospital practices will use commercially available glucometers and blood pressure devices to transmit personal health data, via HealthVault, into the Partners HealthCare secure clinical systems and proprietary diabetes management application.
The system will enable patients to access personalized health information and communicate with their healthcare provider.
"We are pleased to have been selected by the HealthVault Be Well Fund to participate in advancing online solutions for both patients and providers and, specifically, to improve healthcare delivery and diabetes management," said Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, founder and director of the Center for Connected Health. "Based on our experience, we are hopeful that the Diabetes Connected Health program will increase patient and clinician satisfaction, raise patient awareness and education about their diabetes and, importantly, help improve the management of diabetes and, thereby, improve outcomes."
The Center for Connected Health is one of 15 proposed initiatives selected by Microsoft's HealthVault Be Well Fund from nearly 200 submitted.
The Microsoft HealthVault Be Well Fund is designed to stimulate not-for-profit research and development across a broad range of health disciplines that have the potential to significantly improve health and wellness. The fund helps seed innovative avenues of research and explores the potential for disruptive improvements to health management enabled by re-use and sharing of data among patients, families, caregivers, doctors and facilities.
"We're excited to help organizations like the Center for Connected Health turn their ideas into reality and to expand the capabilities and services available through HealthVault," said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of the Health Solutions Group at Microsoft. "Our vision is to use the Internet to empower people to fully engage in managing their own health and improving health outcomes."
Is your organization using at-home technology that engages patients in their own care? Tell us about your challenges and successes. Sent your comments to Editor Bernie Monegain at bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com
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