09/07-07   -   Press releases

ICW America and Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island Team up to offer an Interoperable Personal Health Record: “Building a Patient and Family Centered Health Care System"

ICW America (ICW), a leading international e-Health provider and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University’s Center for Primary Care and Prevention (the Center) at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, a leading research and teaching institution, have reached agreement to enter into a strategic collaboration to “develop and test a 21st century patient-centered, e-Health model of care".

The key objective of the strategic collaboration is to show evidence of improvement in quality of care and patient safety by linking, and in this case, actually integrating a patient owned and controlled personal health record (PHR) to their provider’s electronic medical record (EMR). The collaboration will present the opportunity for a demonstration project that will support, promote and illustrate the value of ICW’s integrated LifeSensor® PHR. When integrated, LifeSensor becomes a trusted source of patient health information for providers, and serves as the patient’s “source system".

Jeremy P. Coote, CEO of ICW America stated, “ICW has been very impressed with the environment of quality improvement supported by Brown and Memorial at the Center. Equally impressive is their record of accomplishment in research and innovation, including clear leadership in embracing health information technology. The Center’s orientation toward improving the patient-physician relationship and fully involving the patient and the patient’s family in clinical care closely matches ICW’s vision."

Dr. Charles Eaton, M.D. M.S., a Professor of Family Medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Director of the Center, is spearheading this initiative. “LifeSensor, as an integrated PHR, fully supports the concept that healthcare providers and patients are equal partners in monitoring and managing patients’ health. The model we envision creating with ICW will enable and empower patients to take more responsibility for their health. With our program design, we believe that we may actually prevent illness or certainly lessen the seriousness and impact of diseases."

Eaton further stated that an integrated PHR-EMR will foster better patient-doctor communications and promote better health outcomes between doctor visits. “Using LifeSensor in this program is not meant to replace the traditional doctor’s office practice but rather enhance and improve upon it."

In addition to the integration of the PHR-EMR within the initial program objectives, the collaboration will also set up the foundational capabilities to enable connectivity for a broader, multi-stakeholder and interoperable regional health information exchange. ICW’s technology is capable of connecting existing, but isolated healthcare information systems without requiring the replacement of existing software. By utilizing ICW’s e-Health Framework and other service oriented architecture solutions, a true interoperable platform is envisioned for fully authorized and secure information sharing among and between appropriate stakeholders in healthcare delivery – including the patient.

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About InterComponentWare
InterComponentWare AG (ICW) is a leading international eHealth specialist with locations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the USA, and Bulgaria. Its solutions for networking the various participants in the health care system achieve a sustained improvement in process-oriented communication and data integrity – and thus the quality of medical care. Among other things, ICW develops and markets software and hardware components for the healthcare IT infrastructure for electronic health cards, the personal health record LifeSensor, and network solutions for clinics and physicians in private practice. As part of the bIT4health consortium, ICW has provided government consulting services for the deployment of the electronic health card in Germany is involved in the Austrian eCard project and has won the pilot project for the national electronic health card in Bulgaria.

About Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island
Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island (www.mhriweb.org) is a 294-bed community hospital serving the Blackstone Valley of Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Memorial is a research and teaching facility of Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School and is the chief site for the medical school’s primary care academic program housed in the Center for Primary Care.
Memorial’s mission is primary care and preventative medicine, providing advanced diagnosis and treatment with a focus on research and teaching. An essential resource in achieving our mission is the medical expertise provided by our competent and caring professional staff. We strive to achieve the timely and efficient delivery of care in a compassionate atmosphere.
The main campus is in Pawtucket, RI, and affiliates provide primary and ambulatory care services at sites in Quality Hill, Plainville, Barrington and Central Falls. Memorial is also home to a state-of-the-art cancer treatment facility in Pawtucket.

About Brown University
Brown University is an internationally known Ivy League institution with a distinctive undergraduate academic curriculum, outstanding faculty, state-of-the-art research facilities, and a tradition of innovative and rigorous multidisciplinary study. Brown offers nearly 100 programs of study to its approximately 7,190 undergraduate, graduate, and medical students and has a firm commitment to academic excellence and diversity in its student population. The University adheres to a collaborative university-college model in which faculty are as committed to teaching as they are to research, embracing a curriculum that requires students to be architects of their education. In 2004, Brown publicly launched its Plan for Academic Enrichment, which is designed to support faculty research and significantly increase the number of faculty, add more courses and research opportunities for undergraduates, improve support for graduate and medical education, and invest in libraries, information technology and new academic space. For more information, visit http://www.brown.edu.