Updox
One in every six U.S. healthcare dollars is spent on cardiovascular disease. There are simple but impactful steps we can take to link patients, pharmacies and providers to reduce healthcare costs while improving quality of care.
DUBLIN, Ohio (PRWEB) April 04, 2018
Updox, a leading provider of care coordination and healthcare customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, has partnered with STRAND (formerly Creative Pharmacist) to help community pharmacists coordinate care with prescribers and other healthcare partners to improve cardiovascular health. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, with more than 1,600 people dying every day due to a heart health-related issue.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), half of all Americans have at least one of three risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including uncontrolled high blood pressure, uncontrolled high or bad (LDL) cholesterol or are current smokers. These risk factors are often preventable by managing medical conditions or making lifestyle choices. The prevalence of heart disease is staggering as someone in the United States has a heart attack every 43 seconds and someone dies from a stroke every four minutes.
Leveraging integration with the STRAND platform, Updox Pharmacy Connect allows pharmacists to easily and securely communicate with patients to educate and encourage adherence in improving heart health. Updox on-demand messaging targets patients taking heart medication and provides a streamlined way to deliver additional education initiatives. Pharmacists can alert patients through text or email messages about clinical screenings, blood pressure monitoring or other heart-related pharmacy services. The pharmacy is able to securely message providers to update them on patients’ adherence as well as collaborate on heart health education screenings. The collaboration empowers pharmacists with the ability to offer the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process, an effort by the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP) to provide a consistent process in the delivery of patient care across the profession. Through this partnership, community pharmacies could collaborate with other pharmacies in their area on the Million Hearts Hypertension Control Challenge, a national initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in five years.
“There is a direct link between managing medical conditions and lowering instances of cardiovascular disease. That link is care coordination – an area where Updox and STRAND excel,” says David Pope, PharmD, CDE, chief of Innovation and co-founder, STRAND. “By coordinating care between pharmacists and prescribers, and using communications tools to engage patients in awareness and education initiatives, we can save lives.”
STRAND is a first-of-its-kind intervention platform, transforming the community pharmacy marketplace by inspiring and empowering pharmacists to tackle growth areas in their business – clinical pharmacy practice – and improve both the health of their business and the health of their patients.
“According to the CDC, one in every six U.S. healthcare dollars is spent on cardiovascular disease. There are simple but impactful steps we can take to link patients, pharmacies and providers to reduce healthcare costs while improving quality of care,” says Michael Morgan, chief executive officer, Updox. “As the role of pharmacists evolves clinically, Updox Pharmacy Connect provides capabilities that support how pharmacies engage with customers, build relationships and connect with providers, all in ways that coordinate care, drive revenue and lower healthcare costs.”
STRAND and Updox launched a joint webinar series to highlight their partnership and focus on industry issues. The next program provides more detail about this heart health initiative and will be held on Wednesday, April 11, at 3 p.m. ET. To register, visit https://www.updox.com/webinars/updox-for-strand-a-better-way-to-engage-patients-with-heart-disease
About Updox
Committed to simplifying the business of healthcare, Updox is the industry leader for care coordination and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions specific for healthcare providers and partners. Named for the past three consecutive years to the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies, Updox is integrated with more than 100 electronic health records (EHR) and serves more than 300,000 users and 72 million patients.
Through an extensive Direct messaging network and platform of apps, Updox connects various healthcare providers, including physicians, patients, payers, pharmacies, labs and healthcare partners. Once part of the Updox network, users or partners can access a full suite of applications including secure messaging, patient portal, appointment scheduling & reminders, credit card payments, and health alerts, all with the goal of driving improved outcomes through more efficient communications and better care coordination. Learn more at http://www.updox.com.
About STRAND
Co-founded by a community pharmacist and a technology expert in 2008, STRAND is the U.S. market leader in helping pharmacists launch clinical services within their community. They support community pharmacists across the country in engaging patients with chronic disease, such as diabetes, through STRAND, a wide-reaching intervention, documentation, and education platform capable of developing the new Pharmacist eCare Plan. Their mission is to transform the community pharmacy marketplace by inspiring and empowering pharmacists to engage clinical pharmacy practice to improve both the health of their business and the health of their patients. For more information, please visit https://strandrx.com.
