Project HOPE, UnitedHealth Group Launch Connected Care Telehealth Program to Expand Health Care Access in New Mexico
Washington, D.C. (July 15, 2009) – Project HOPE, the
international health education and humanitarian assistance
organization, and UnitedHealth Group [NYSE: UNH] today announced a
partnership to bring much-needed health care services to underserved
communities, beginning in New Mexico. The program represents one of the
first implementations of UnitedHealth Group’s “Connected Care,” a new
national telehealth network the company launched today.
A Connected Care mobile clinic will help residents in New Mexico obtain
health screenings and treatment. The initiative will help residents
with their overall health issues and will focus on identifying and
addressing diabetes and other chronic diseases associated with a lack
of regular primary care.
Since 1958, Project HOPE has worked to deliver sustainable solutions to
health care challenges that affect underserved populations around the
world. Partnering with UnitedHealth Group’s Connected Care is the
organization’s first major, long-term project designed to aid
underserved populations in the United States since the 1990s.
John P. Howe III, M.D., president and chief executive officer of
Project HOPE, said: “HOPE is recognized in the international community
as a leader in developing education programs to address chronic
diseases such as diabetes. We have been seeking the right partner and
opportunity to bring HOPE’s expertise to the United States. This is the
perfect partnership to allow HOPE to play a larger role in improving
access to quality health care for all Americans, starting with the
particular needs of rural New Mexicans.”
Stephen J. Hemsley, president and chief executive officer, UnitedHealth
Group said: “Project HOPE’s leadership in community health programs
coupled with our company’s national health care resources will help
improve access to quality care in underserved areas of the U.S. We are
eager to work with these communities in New Mexico and leverage
Connected Care to achieve better health over the long term.”
The program will be available to New Mexico residents across the state,
beginning in the first quarter of 2010 in the southwest (Hidalgo and
Doña Ana counties) and expanding over three years to the central
Albuquerque region, as well as the southeast and north.
Project HOPE and UnitedHealth Group will develop a sustainable model
and infrastructure for primary care treatment and chronic disease
management, while also building the capacity of local community health
care centers and their workers to care for residents. UnitedHealth
Group will provide program funding, technology and technical support to
the partnership. Project HOPE will apply its knowledge and experience
implementing health care training programs that address chronic
diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
For example, in the last 10 years, HOPE has trained more than 200,000
health care workers in China about diabetes prevention and treatment,
and last year HOPE launched a diabetes education program targeted at
health care workers in India. HOPE’s India program recently was
recognized by the International Diabetes Foundation as one of the best
diabetes education programs in the world.
Chronic Disease Identification and Management Key Part of Program
Through Connected Care, a mobile clinic will travel to residents and
give them access to physicians and specialists using high-definition
videoconferencing to create an experience remarkably similar to an
in-person visit with a doctor. An on-site nurse also will staff the
clinic, and residents’ ongoing health care needs will be coordinated
with community health centers with an ultimate goal of ensuring
patients have a “medical home” to help them stay healthy.
The program’s chief objective is to help these communities address high
incidences of chronic diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes and
pre-diabetes. People of Hispanic or Latino origin – who make up 44
percent of the population in New Mexico – are more predisposed toward
type 2 diabetes than Caucasians. According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), a 2004-2006 study showed 10.4 percent of
Hispanics living in the U.S. had been diagnosed with diabetes, and
nationwide another 57 million Americans of all ethnicities are
considered pre-diabetic, with about a fourth of them unaware of their
condition.
The Connected Care program in New Mexico will be designed to screen for
and treat diabetes and pre-diabetes and other chronic conditions, such
as high blood pressure and heart disease, and to educate residents
about how to manage their health more effectively.
Program to Build Local Health Care Capacity and Help Achieve Sustainability
HOPE will implement its “Train-the-Trainer” (TOT) programs to build
local health care worker capacity and help improve care quality in
these communities for the long term. HOPE has implemented TOT programs
around the world to teach health care workers how to better address
their communities’ most pressing health crises, from infectious
diseases to chronic illnesses. The TOT also emphasizes teaching health
care workers how to teach others, creating a ripple effect that further
expands local health care capacity. Project HOPE has trained more than
two million people worldwide, creating millions of better-trained
health care professionals.
Key partners and collaborators in both the care delivery and training
programs include the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center,
Office for Community Health (UNM-HSC) and the New Mexico Department of
Health; along with multiple community health centers and other local
organizations. UNM will analyze the Connected Care mobile clinic’s
contribution to improved health outcomes and the results will be used
to help inform future programs.
About UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a diversified health and well-being
company dedicated to making health care work better. Headquartered in
Minneapolis, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of
products and services through six operating businesses:
UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and
Prescription Solutions. Through its family of businesses, UnitedHealth
Group serves more than 70 million individuals nationwide.
About Project HOPE
Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People
Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health
problems with the mission of helping people to help themselves.
Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime
hospital ship, Project HOPE now provides medical training and health
education, as well as conducts humanitarian assistance programs in more
than 35 countries. For more information, please visit www.projecthope.org
