NEW YORK, NY — (Marketwired) — 10/17/13 — AMC Health announced today that its telemonitoring platform will be used in a research study to improve asthma control by monitoring when patients use their asthma medications and intervening as soon as a problem develops. The study will be funded by a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. The grant was awarded to Asthma Management Systems, LLC, a Delaware-based company that develops and tests innovative approaches to improve asthma care.
The study will enroll patients who have had multiple emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to uncontrolled asthma. AMC Health will provide for half of the patients in this feasibility study. These telemonitors clip onto the inhalers that dispense the two types of medication that most people with severe asthma take, a controller that is taken every day and a rescue medication for short-term relief when breathing becomes difficult.
Andrew Weinstein, M.D., the CEO of Asthma Management Systems and Principal Investigator for the study, explained that patients should take controller medication every day, even if they are not experiencing asthma symptoms because failure to follow this schedule often leads to an asthma attack. Dr. Weinstein will also monitor patients- use of rescue medication. If a patient uses the rescue inhaler frequently, it alerts the physician that the patient-s asthma is not well controlled. The study team will use a counseling technique known as to help patients manage their asthma better.
“With the AMC Health telemonitoring platform,” Dr. Weinstein noted, “the study team will know immediately if a patient doesn-t take the controller medication as prescribed, or is using the rescue inhaler too often, and can help stabilize the patient before a full-blown asthma attack forces him or her to go to the emergency room.” AMC Health and Asthma Management Systems prepared the grant application together, and plan to submit a grant for a larger study as soon as this one is completed.
Michael O-Brien, president of AMC Health-s Clinical Trials Division, said “This grant provides an important opportunity to demonstrate the value of this new methodology, and we are proud to play a key role in this ground-breaking research.” O-Brien also commented that studies examining the factors surrounding medication adherence can lead to improved quality of life for patients, as well as reduced healthcare costs due to fewer emergency room visits and hospital admissions.
AMC Health & Asthma Management Systems team up in #asthma #telemonitoring study with grant provided by SBIR
Headquartered in New York City, AMC Health is a leading provider of telemedicine solutions that provide customized, scalable, cost-effective programs that assist organizations serving at-risk populations, and those conducting clinical trials. A proven combination of technology and end-to-end support services enables safe, dependable monitoring at home. AMC Health-s remote patient monitoring programs deliver clinically actionable information that improves the quality and reduces the cost of clinical trials, enhances care coordination, improves patient outcomes and reduces the overall cost of healthcare. For more information, visit .
Headquartered in Wilmington, DE, Asthma Management Systems is a leader in promoting adherence disease management for individuals with asthma. It conducts Motivational Interviewing/adherence training to healthcare providers at national Asthma and Allergy meetings; conducts research for the National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical companies to determine the optimal practice pattern in promoting adherence to asthma therapy; and designs and coordinates adherence treatment programs to reduce asthma emergency and inpatient visits and costs for health plans. It has developed proprietary software, Asthma Adherence Pathway, to assist physicians and disease management companies identify the multiple causes of non-adherence and provide patient-specific Motivational Interviewing Adherence Strategies.
Jan Shulman
Amendola Communications for AMC Health
480.664.8412
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