Boston Scientific Corp. and Accenture have teamed up to offer a cloud-based digital health product that is designed to help hospitals improve patient outcomes, reduce overall length of stay and readmission rates, and lower costs related to treating chronic cardiovascular diseases. The data-driven solution is currently being used on patients with heart failure, as the disease is one of the costliest to manage and generally results in longer hospital stays.
“We identified a 25% 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,” said Dr. Kari Niemelä, chief executive officer of Tampere Heart Hospital, in a press release. Located in Finland, Tampere Heart Hospital is one of two hospitals that Boston Scientific and Accenture worked with to assess the current state of care of heart failure patients, along with areas of improvement.
The Advantics Care Pathway Transformation solution focuses on pathway analytics (how a patient moves through the hospital system, including how long this takes), care management (how patients are diagnosed, treated and monitored), and patient engagement (how patients are educated, monitored and communicated with during and after their time in the hospital).
The companies plan to expand the digital health solution to other cardiovascular disease states in the future. The product will be made available to hospitals in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, followed by pilot projects in Europe and the United States.