Boston Scientific and Accenture Develop Data-Driven Digital Health Solution to Help Improve Patient Outcomes and Reduce Cost of Treating Chronic Cardiovascular Conditions
Care Pathway Transformation solution is designed to enable providers to make better-informed decisions based on patient population insights
MARLBOROUGH, Massachusetts and NEW YORK, Jan. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) have developed a cloud-based, data-driven digital health solution for hospitals that is designed to help improve patient outcomes and reduce costs to treat patients with chronic cardiovascular diseases.
The solution, known as ADVANTICS™ Care Pathway Transformation, is designed to enable providers to make more proactive and informed decisions based on insights into the patient population, ultimately improving the care a patient experiences from hospital stay through post-discharge care and in-home support.
The Care Pathway Transformation solution uses the Accenture analytics insights platform, which provides actionable insights into care coordination and patient population health patterns, revealing opportunities to improve their consistency and efficiency. The solution will focus on three key measurements:
- Pathway Analytics: how a patient moves through the hospital system, how long each step takes and whether a patient can be better served by a more efficient system;
- Care Management: how patients are diagnosed, treated and monitored, by whom and how often, as well as their ongoing vital signs and risk analysis; and
- Patient Engagement: how patients are educated, monitored and receive communication during their hospitalization and after discharge.
The solution has been tailored for insight into patients with heart failure, but the companies plan to expand it to additional disease states.
In developing this solution, both companies worked with two of the largest hospitals in Scandinavia, Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden and Tampere Heart Hospital in Finland, to assess the current state of care delivery for heart failure patients and identify opportunities for improvement at each hospital. Heart failure has been identified as one of the costliest disease states to manage—resulting in about two percent of healthcare spending and accounting for an average 11-day hospital stay in Europei.
"The collaboration with Boston Scientific and Accenture exposed significant opportunities to increase provider collaboration and improve the quality of care that patients experience when coming to our hospital," said Dr. Kari Niemelä, chief executive officer, Tampere Heart Hospital. "For example, we identified a 25 percent unnecessary heart failure readmissions rate, and therefore a definite need for better care coordination, supported by modern technology and processes that can decrease overall costs."
"Boston Scientific and Accenture designed this digital health platform to help providers standardize care, reduce overall length of stay and lower readmission rates," said Mike Mahoney, president and chief executive officer, Boston Scientific. "The Care Pathway Transformation solution is designed to support healthcare professionals and patients to have more informed relationships, leading to better health outcomes and lower costs for health systems. Together, we are addressing an acute need for some of the most costly chronic conditions."
Anne O'Riordan, senior managing director at Accenture Life Sciences, said, "Socio-economic changes are driving the market to move to value-based care, and new data-driven care transformation services are a great enabler of delivering high-quality healthcare at the right cost. Working together with Boston Scientific, we are able to bring to market digital capabilities and analytics-driven insights that focus on improving patient and economic outcomes."
Boston Scientific and Accenture initially plan to make the Care Pathway Transformation solution available to hospitals in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia and expect to pilot projects throughout Europe and the United States soon.
About Boston Scientific
Boston Scientific transforms lives through innovative medical solutions that improve the health of patients around the world. As a global medical technology leader for more than 35 years, we advance science for life by providing a broad range of high performance solutions that address unmet patient needs and reduce the cost of healthcare. For more information, visit www.bostonscientific.com and connect on Twitter and Facebook.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world's largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 373,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words like "anticipate," "expect," "project," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "intend" and similar words. These forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and estimates using information available to us at the time and are not intended to be guarantees of future events or performance.These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding the Care Pathway Transformation solution and its impact. If our underlying assumptions turn out to be incorrect, or if certain risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. These factors, in some cases, have affected and in the future (together with other factors) could affect our ability to implement our business strategy and may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the statements expressed in this press release. As a result, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of our forward-looking statements.
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CONTACTS:
U.S. Media: Tom Keppeler
Boston Scientific Corporation
508-683-6585 (office)
thomas.keppeler@bsci.com
Cam Granstra
312-693-5992 (office)
Media/Industry Analyst Relations
Accenture
cameria.l.granstra@accenture.com
European Media: Simonetta Balbi
39 010 6060281 (office)
Boston Scientific Corporation
Simonetta.Balbi@bsci.com
Investors: Susie Lisa, CFA
508-683-5565 (office)
Boston Scientific Corporation
investor_relations@bsci.com
i Frieder Braunschweig, Martin R. Cowie, Angelo Auricchio. "What are the costs of heart failure?"
Europace May 2011, 13 (suppl 2) ii13-ii17; DOI: 10.1093/europace/eur081
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