Showcase Introduction
Medicom Digital has created a diverse set of custom software products for a wide variety of clients. The following list represents a sampling of our more recent products:
Clinical Decision-support System for Asthma Specialists
Client
American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology (AAAAI)
Product
Asthma is one of the most common health problems in the United States. In 2005, nearly 4,000 Americans died from asthma exacerbations, and over 22 million people in the U.S. currently have a diagnosis of asthma. The AAAAI needed an application to help asthma specialists integrate the latest national asthma guidelines into their everyday practices and focus on improving quality of care for asthma patients. (Reference: http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/aag07.htm)
Audience
Asthma specialists around the world
Challenge
Many asthma specialists have a hard time implementing new national guidelines for asthma care quickly. Additionally, asthma specialists are increasingly required to document quality of care for quality improvement and pay for performance programs.
Solution
The ASTHMA IQ program enables asthma specialists to use an online secure web-based application to enter patient data and to get real-time information and feedback from the national asthma guidelines. Information entered in the application can be used to satisfy pay for performance requirements, complete practice improvement modules to improve processes, review historical trends in a practice’s treatment of asthma patients, and generate custom reports for patients.
In order to provide live guideline feedback about patients, Medicom Digital’s medical research group created detailed algorithms based on the text of the 440-page EPR-3 Asthma Care guidelines developed by NHLBI. These algorithms are used in automatic calculations of guideline treatment step levels, inhaled corticosteroid dosage levels, severity and control levels, follow-up recommendations and treatment recommendations. ASTHMA IQ also can highlight active issues for a patient that should be addressed during the clinic visit based on the data entered for the patient.
All information entered into the ASTHMA IQ application is split into two domains to allow identifiable patient data to be maintained only inside of the registered clinic, while the de-identified data is available to AAAAI for academic research purposes.
Company
Medicom Digital’s specialty is our unique ability to research the client’s needs, comprehend the science in relevant medical studies, and deliver complex information in user-friendly, appealing, and motivating applications.
Medicom Digital can work with the client’s advertising agencies to achieve seamless integration of our tools with current marketing collateral and web sites. Medicom Digital also has extensive experience in dealing with medical affairs, regulatory, legal and editorial reviewers in order to achieve optimal results for our clients.
High Blood Pressure Risk Calculator Featured in 2007 Super Bowl Ad
Client
American Heart Association with various sponsorships
Product
High blood pressure is called “the silent killer.” While the nation’s cholesterol numbers have improved in recent years and the percentage of people smoking has leveled off, there has been little change in the nation’s blood pressure levels in the past decade. This is a serious problem since high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and heart failure. The American Heart Association needed an easy-to-use tool to enable people to see the impact of high blood pressure, and to encourage them to take action to deal with this condition.
Audience
- All adults, especially patients diagnosed with high blood pressure
- Health professionals
Challenge
People are largely unaware of how serious high blood pressure is. Or if they have high blood pressure, it may not be adequately controlled. They usually cannot feel any symptoms of high blood pressure, and therefore are often not concerned about it.
Solution
The High Blood Pressure Risk Calculator enables a person to quickly enter his/her age, gender, height, weight, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. It then projects the person’s 10-year risk of having a heart attack, stroke, kidney disease and heart failure.
Next, the user is encouraged to make lifestyle changes in order to lower that individual’s blood pressure, and to see the reduced risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and heart failure. A custom report can be printed and shared with the person’s physician.
The High Blood Pressure Risk Calculator also includes a database built by Medicom Digital that records non-individually-identifiable information collected from the calculator. Because of the huge numbers of consumers using this tool, the AHA now has useful statistics on the risk levels of particular groups.
Medicom Digital’s medical research and design teams first identified and validated a substantial set of mathematical medical algorithms derived from large, published studies to create the High Blood Pressure Risk Calculator. This initial research phase is critical to the success of a tool like this since the risk estimates shown must be widely accepted by medical experts while still being presented to consumers in an easily understood fashion.
Company
Medicom Digital’s specialty is our unique ability to research the client’s needs, comprehend the science in relevant medical studies, and deliver complex information in user-friendly, appealing, and motivating applications.
Medicom Digital can work with the client’s advertising agencies to achieve seamless integration of our tools with current marketing collateral and web sites. Medicom Digital also has extensive experience in dealing with medical affairs, regulatory, legal and editorial reviewers in order to achieve optimal results for our clients.
www.beatyourrisk.com
Real-time Data Dashboard Provides Compelling Statistics about Tool Users
Client
National Association with various sponsorships
Product
The highly-popular Blood Pressure Risk Calculator includes a back-end database built by Medicom Digital that records non-individually-identifiable information collected from the calculator. Because of the huge numbers of consumers using this tool, the client now has compelling statistics from the people using the tool.
The client required a way for multiple staff members and scientists to analyze the de-identified data being collected. Medicom Digital worked with the client to develop a dynamic, real-time data dashboard for visualizing different aspects of the data collected and to understand exactly who is using the tool and which features are being used the most.
Audience
Associations staff and scientists
Challenge
The authorized personnel of the client who use the Data Dashboard come from different departments. They require different ways of looking at different aspects of the data.
Solution
Medicom Digital created an easy-to-use dashboard interface with dynamic data widgets. We worked with the client to understand their specific requirements for data analysis. The data widgets included in the dashboard are very powerful and easily customizable. Within each widget are controls that can be set to make the real-time query to the data base as specific as necessary. For example, the blood pressure widget contains controls that can limit the query to specific age ranges, gender, or several other variables.
Company
Medicom Digital’s specialty is our unique ability to research the client’s needs, comprehend the science in relevant medical studies, and deliver complex information in user-friendly, appealing, and motivating applications.
Medicom Digital can work with the client’s advertising agencies to achieve seamless integration of our tools with current marketing collateral and web sites. Medicom Digital also has extensive experience in dealing with medical affairs, regulatory, legal and editorial reviewers in order to achieve optimal results for our clients.
Symptoms Assessor Gives Patients a Graphical Tool to Encourage Doctor Discussions
Client
Wyeth/Amgen
Product
ENBREL® is an injectable protein called a Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) blocker. This protein helps block the process that can lead to the pain, inflammation, and progressive joint damage that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can cause.
Audience
RA patients who suffer from symptoms that are no longer adequately controlled by other therapies.
Challenge
RA can seriously impact patients’ activity and functioning levels. While patients are aware of their symptoms, they may not clearly see how those symptoms impact their quality of life. Patients also may be unaware of the progressive nature of irreversible joint damage in RA.
Many patients are frustrated with their current therapy, and find it difficult to effectively communicate their RA-related issues, concerns, and problems to their doctors. The client wanted to equip RA patients with information on their symptoms and needs so that these patients could have more effective discussions with their physicians about improved treatment options.
Solution
Medicom Digital created an online RA Symptoms Assessor. This easy-to-use tool helps patients clearly measure the effect of their symptoms on their daily quality-of-life. The Assessor’s report can be printed and shared with the patients’ physicians. The report arms patients with compelling and graphical descriptions of their RA symptoms that resonate with physicians.
Medicom Digital’s medical research and design teams first identified a set of reliable and valid measures of RA symptoms to properly address qualitative physical pain, discomfort and disability, and quality of life parameters. This initial research phase was critical since the appropriate set of disease descriptors are the basis of the RA Symptoms Assessor reports.
In addition, the RA Symptoms Assessor captures non-individually-identifiable patient responses that are aggregated into periodic reports for the client. This information is extremely valuable in measuring the effectiveness of the Assessor and for product marketing purposes. In each of the first six months of use, over 5,000 people per month on average utilized the RA Symptoms Assessor.
Company
Medicom Digital’s specialty is our unique ability to research the client’s needs, comprehend the science in relevant medical studies, and deliver complex information in user-friendly, appealing, and motivating applications.
Medicom Digital can work with the client’s advertising agencies to achieve seamless integration of our tools with current marketing collateral and web sites. Medicom Digital also has extensive experience in dealing with medical affairs, regulatory, legal and editorial reviewers in order to achieve optimal results for our clients.
www.enbrel.com
Easy-to-use Interface Enhances Understanding of Cost Effectiveness Model
Client
International Influenza Virus Vaccine Manufacturer
Product
The client is a leading manufacturer of influenza virus vaccine. A dose of influenza virus vaccine is recommended annually for most Americans. However, many healthy adults who are at risk for influenza do not get vaccinated, thus making them more likely to get this disease and to place a burden on their families, employers, and others with whom they come in contact.
Audience
Employer, insurance company, and 3rd party payer executives
Challenge
Although most elderly and at-risk patients do receive the influenza virus vaccine annually, many healthy adults do not. When employees get influenza, their employers incur productivity losses that certainly add up – especially when this communicable disease goes through the company.
Solution
Create a model to show the economic advantages of inoculating increasing numbers of employees and demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of vaccination at different levels.
Instead of trying to decipher a complex spreadsheet, users are walked through a visually-appealing program that allows them to customize their own organization’s statistics to predict the final results. This model looks at both the Direct and the Indirect costs employers incur when employees get influenza and the expenses avoided when they don’t.
The model thus supplies an economic incentive for employers, insurance companies and 3rd party payers to sponsor free influenza virus vaccination clinics for all eligible employees.
Medicom Digital is recognized internationally for its expertise in pharmacoeconomic modeling. This Influenza Virus Vaccine Cost-effectiveness Model is an example of the large number of highly sophisticated yet user-friendly programs we have developed that can be shown in a short amount of time to decisionmakers to give them economic reasons to take action.
Company
Medicom Digital’s specialty is our unique ability to research the client’s needs, comprehend the science in relevant medical studies, and deliver complex information in user-friendly, appealing, and motivating applications.
Medicom Digital can work with the client’s advertising agencies to achieve seamless integration of our tools with current marketing collateral and web sites. Medicom Digital also has extensive experience in dealing with medical affairs, regulatory, legal and editorial reviewers in order to achieve optimal results for our clients.
Entertaining Animation Illustrates Complex Concepts of Sleep
Client
National Sleep Foundation, Sponsored by Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America
Product
Client: The National Sleep Foundation is the ultimate resource for information on sleep disorders and sleep-related questions. It needed a high-impact means of informing people about reasons for sleep problems and of publicizing its role in providing education about sleep disorders.
Sponsor: Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America makes the only prescription aid for sleep that is not a scheduled narcotic. Since this medication has a new therapeutic mechanism of action that is difficult to easily describe, it wanted to make a general educational program available that would increase awareness of sleep problems.
Audience
- Consumers, especially those with trouble sleeping
- Health Professionals.
Challenge
Lack of sound sleep can seriously impact individuals’ lives and ability to function. However, there are a number of potential causes of sleep disorders, and these conditions are often not easily identified or explained.
Solution
Medicom Digital created a set of online interactive 3D cartoon vignettes based around a fictional four-member family, the “DOZE family.” All four family members (Grandpa, Joe, Jane and Minnie Doze) have certain lifestyles or other variables that cause their sleep patterns to be disrupted. Through these entertaining vignettes, users learn how and why these characters have sleep problems. Or the user can click on active controls to learn more about specific topics or causes of sleep disorders.
Medicom Digital’s medical research and design teams first identified a set of reliable and valid measures of sleep problems from medically recognized references to properly address a wide variety of sleep disorder parameters. This initial research phase was critical since the relevant sleep disorder descriptors are the basis of the Cycles of Sleeping and Waking with the DOZE Family.
This program was the global winner of the Gold Summit Award for creative excellence in the interactive Health and Medicine Website category.
Company
Medicom Digital’s specialty is our unique ability to research the client’s needs, comprehend the science in relevant medical studies, and deliver complex information in user-friendly, appealing, and motivating applications.
Medicom Digital can work with the client’s advertising agencies to achieve seamless integration of our tools with current marketing collateral and web sites. Medicom Digital also has extensive experience in dealing with medical affairs, regulatory, legal and editorial reviewers in order to achieve optimal results for our clients.
Sleeping and Waking with the Doze Family
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