About our project
This project is a finalist in the 2015 AHA NYC Challenge. Find and fund all the AHA finalists here and come see the winners at the Health Sciences Forum on April 22nd in NYC.
Thanks to the support of NYCBIO, all donations to this project are Tax Deductible. To learn more about NYCBIO, please visit NYCBio.org.
Mend Health uses content and care collaboration technology to close AFib care gaps, prevent up to 16,000 strokes and save more than $2 billion each year.
- aAFib patients become partners in reducing stroke and cardiac risk while living active and vibrant lives.
- Physicians gain better, between visit insights about AFib patients symptoms, questions, complications and concerns.
- Physician’s close gaps of care, practice to national guidelines and actively identify AFib patients that need between visit attention
- Resulting in less strokes, fewer complications, limited ER visits, saving lives and reducing costs.
AFib is a common abnormal heart rhythm and a leading cause of strokes, congestive heart failure and death. By 2025, there will be 15-20 million Americans living with AFib associated with skyrocketing medical costs.
“We are at a unique point in history regarding the management of atrial fibrillation (AFib). The incidence and prevalence of AFib continue to rise to epidemic proportions, with current estimates easily surpassing projections from a decade ago. Among Medicare beneficiaries, the onset of AFib leads to a change in the trajectory of hospitalization, care utilization, and survival, costing Medicare $16 billion each year toa treat new AFib and adding $14,000 per patient per year in incremental costs.” I
Atrial Fibrillation: Some Basics
AFib Increases Your Stroke Risk by 500%.
Every single day I see the devastating effects of AFib; including strokes, congestive heart failure and even death. It is one of the most challenging conditions that my colleagues and I face on a daily basis.
AFib is scary for patients and despite the availability of new medications, new procedures and national treatment guidelines, we still see way too many preventable AFib complications and costs.
Read Stroke on the Rise Despite New Treatments
At Mend Health, we have identified major AFib care gaps. Closing those care gaps would prevent up to 16,000 strokes and save more than $2 billion each year.
AFib Care Gaps Costs Medicare Big Bucks
Millions of Americans have AFIb but their care is inconsistent and inefficient leading to preventable strokes, congestive failure and death. As healthcare systems and payers move towards population management we must arm physicians and their patients with high tech digital tools to maximize engagement and high quality outcomes.
Mend Health Improves AFib Care and Outcomes
Mend Health disrupts AFib care and closes treatment gaps by providing clinicians and patients with HIPPA-compliant, cloud- based web and mobile App solutions in order to prevent strokes and reduce costs.
How Does Mend Health Work?
The Mend Health solution contains 5 major components:
- Mend AFib Dashboard for physicians and care coordinators*
- EHR-based tool that organizes AFib patients in a novel way
- Promotes population management of AFib by non-physicians (care coordinators and physician extenders)
- Promotes AHA/ACC guideline driven, high-quality care
- Uses analytics to identify outlying patients with ER visits, complications and non-compliance.
- Mend.Me Mobile App for patients and caregivers
- Promotes patient engagement with tracking and rewards
- Promotes compliance: specifically for blood thinners to prevent stroke
- Allows communication with HIPPA compliant texting capabilities
- Promotes compliance with follow-up visits and testing by using calendar rules
- Mend AFib National Database Registry
- Independent registry to record and track all cases of AFIb in the US
- Promotes research and quality analytics
- Mend Wireless Rhythm and BP Monitoring
- Wireless rhythm monitoring is a critical part of early detection and AFib treatment
- We will support a variety of 3rd party wireless monitoring devices with our API
- Mend Educational Knowledge Modules
- We have created hundreds of small “tweet like” knowledge modules for patients relating to AFib, tests and procedures, medications, strokes and general cardiovascular health and wellness.
There are a number of studies that show the benefits and clinical efficacy of shared AFib care plans, the dangers of non-compliance in AFib patients and positive benefits of guideline driven care as with the American Heart Association’s “Get with the Guidelines” Program.
Links to Articles
- Strokes on the Rise Despite New Treatments
- Get with the Guidelines Summary
- The Dangers of Non-adherence
- “Impact of Practice Guidelines:”https://db.tt/ZPDLm5Tq
FDA Status
We are HIPPA-compliant and do not need FDA evaluation.
How our project will help reduce cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20% by 2020
AFib is one the most common causes of strokes in the US. Closing the identified care gaps in AFib improves cardiovascular health and reduces the number of strokes by significantly.
Mend Health aims to enhance detection of AFib, improve education and engagement, ramp up compliance and promote high quality, guideline-driven care across provider and promote cardiovascular health.
AFib Caused By Obesity
How Mend Health Benefits Patients
Patients with AFib who become active participants in their care will improve outcomes, reduce risk and have higher satisfaction. Less than 50% of patients feel like they are educated properly about their AFib and only 40% really understand the risks, lifestyle improvement options and various medical options for stroke prevention. Armed with automated tracking information (captured in Mend Health) they will bring vivid examples of between appointment activities and events that enhance provider/patient collaboration.
Atrial Fibrillation Lowers Quality of Life
Mend Health partners with patients to ensure they are getting the best AFib care.
- 24/7 access to AFib experts
- personalized knowledge modules with AFib and general cardiovascular education delivered in unique packets
- Personalized stroke risk evaluator
- Guidance of your AFib care plan
- Symptom and Medication tracker
- Medication and office visit reminders
How Mend Health benefits Physicians
Mend Health wants to make treating AFib as simple and efficient as possible. Our AFib Dashboard gives doctors a customizable snapshot of all their AFib patients in one place. Our mission is to allow physician extenders and care providers to manage large populations of AFib patients efficiently and effectively.
In a quick view, physicians can see a list all of their AFib patients, date of AFib onset, the AFib care plan, the ejection fraction (EF), the stroke risk calculation (CHA2DS2- VASc score), the bleeding risk (HAS- BLED score), the QTc, medications, bleeding complications, ablation or cardioversion dates,and much more.
For physicians involved in AFib care in any way, the Mend Solution will make your lives better and more productive.
How Mend Health Helps our Partners
Our technology will help promote best practices and that should translate to more patients taking novel oral anticoagulation (NOAC) therapy, more patients staying compliant with their medications, more patients being referred for definitive EP and ablation procedures and less complications and hospital admissions.
Mend Health promotes finding and treating aggressively all patients with AFib. We promote high quality care and using best practices along with national AFib guidelines. We promote using guidelines to make sure everyone who should be taking blood thinners, is taking blood thinners.
In addition, we are beginning a national database with all AFib patients for research and analytics.
In addition, we plan to partner with 3rd parties to offer remote wireless monitoring to aid in AFib diagnosis and management.
We are looking for partners that will help us shape the future of AFib care.
How We Will Spend Your Contributions:
Every dollar of contributions goes towards building out our technology and then piloting the project in a large cardiovascular clinic.
The Mend Health Team
Dr. Matthew DeVane
Co-founder and a Stanford Healthcare affiliated cardiologist with 15+ years of clinical experience relevant to this project.
LinkedIn
Nicolas Saint Arnaud
Co-founder and MIT engineer CTO with 15+ years of startup experience, a digital health passion and most recently head of analytics with Castlight Health in San Francisco
LinkedIn
Medical Advisory Board: Anu Gupta MD, Faizul Haque MD, Ryan Brown MD
How to Find Us
@MendHealth
mendhealth@gmail.com
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Have a question?
If the info above does not help, you can ask the project creator directly.
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