San Francisco based Health Support Systems (HSS) has released of an online disease management portal, offered free to individual users. This free service helps people who are living with chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity, hypertension or heart disease better manage their health through a combination of self-monitoring, education and qualitative analysis. Users can enter and track various health related parameters, monitor improvements through charts and reports, analyze their risk profile, add custom elements, discuss issues at the health forum, and collaborate with care givers or physicians who are subscribed to HSS.
“By providing a completely customizable solution, HSS puts the power of technology in the hands of individual patients and their care givers. This is a big step in the direction of greater efficiency in delivery of healthcare services, while further empowering individuals in the care of their own health” says Dr. Jaan Sidorov, former Board member of the Disease Management Association of America (DMAA), and former Medical Director of the Geisinger Care Coordination Program and now an advisor to Health Support Systems.
HSS co-founder Bala Selvarajan adds: "By making use of the underlying health parameters, an interactive system like HSS will be a powerful and valuable personal healthcare tool. We take the user experience beyond stand alone Personal Health Record systems like HealthVault from Microsoft."
Health Support Systems also offers a subscription service for Disease Management companies. This low cost subscription service offers a fully customizable online tool that enables DM companies to automate their workflow and simplify patient-nurse collaboration, thereby reducing their operating costs. Using the subscription service, Disease Management companies can capture patient information, provide timely intervention, and use rule-based outreach programs.
Otto Wolke, CEO of Schellen & Partners Inc and an advisor for Health Support Systems, adds: "Disease management vendors currently spend a lot of money having highly trained DM nurses make routine phone calls to patients from call centers. A solution like HSS handles and organizes a lot of the routine exchanges of information, allowing DM companies to utilize their nurse resources more efficiently."
The subscription service can also be used by corporations for their employees and dependents. By subscribing their employees to a disease management or wellness program, companies can benefit from fewer employee sick days, higher productivity, and lower employee-related health costs.
“Employers should be interested in the subscription service", says Dr. Susan Jennings, an independent health care consultant and DMAA board member, also an advisor for Health Support Systems. "The wellness aspects of this site allow the individual employee to build and keep a personal health record, and do specific tracking and keep diaries on their exercise, diet, and weight condition and progress."
HSS was founded by professionals from the healthcare and technology sectors, with the vision of bringing to healthcare the cost savings of technology and service efficiency. The goal is to deliver high-quality disease management and wellness services at substantially lower cost than currently available.
"Health Support Systems represents the next stage for the rapidly growing disease management industry," says Lee Hagelshaw, co-founder of Health Support Systems. "We will make a positive impact on the cost side of the equation, enabling delivery of high-quality DM and wellness services at costs substantially below the current offerings."
