Complex medical terms are automatically translated into easy-to-understand consumer friendly terminology that arms employees with knowledge to proactively improve their health and healthcare
DENVER – May 18, 2011 – Health Language, Inc. (HLI), the global leader in medical terminology management, is teaming with Dossia, a leading health management system provider whose founding members include many of the country’s major employers, to improve the user experience and utility of the Dossia Personal Health Record for employees, retirees, and their dependents.
Dossia has embedded HLI’s Language Engine in the Dossia Health Management System, a web-based infrastructure that aggregates users’ personal health information from a variety of sources and makes that information actionable with personalized health management tools that enable users to take better control over their health and care. HLI’s Language Engine will automatically translate clinical diagnosis and procedure descriptions into easily understood, consumer-friendly terms. The use of common language allows individuals to review, comprehend, absorb and act upon the information contained in their chart at their convenience. A diagnosis of epistaxis, for example, is meaningless to most consumers. By translating the clinical term into the commonly understood “nosebleed”, HLI and Dossia help employees understand what and why a certain treatment is recommended, which leads to better compliance.
“Too often, patients feel rushed or embarrassed when they don’t understand what their physician is trying to explain so they don’t ask for clarification,” states Michael Critelli, Dossia CEO. “To make matters worse, studies have shown that patients forget the majority of what they’ve been told by their physician shortly after an encounter ends. It’s no wonder that so few patients fully comply with the instructions they receive. Informed, educated consumers are far more likely to become active participants in managing their health, which often means they consume fewer resources and remain healthier and more productive employees.”
HLI’s Language Engine is a powerful, scalable and flexible software solution that integrates and manages medical terminologies to create true healthcare interoperability. It provides current versions of more than 100 clinical and administrative code sets, including SNOMED CT®, ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM, LOINC®, RxNorm, HCPCS and others.
The aggregated information in the Dossia Personal Health Record includes health data from a number of different sources, including doctors’ offices and hospitals, health plans, pharmacies and labs, as well as self-entered information. Employees trying to navigate through this data can be stymied by the disparity in clinical terms, an obstacle to active engagement in their health and wellness decisions. Using HLI’s Language Engine to associate clinical terminology with consumer friendly language can change the dynamic of medical interactions – consumers feel they have the necessary knowledge to become actively involved.
“The ability to ensure that medical data can be easily understood contributes to a higher level of understanding and cooperation by all parties in the delivery of healthcare services,” said George Schwend, Health Language CEO. “We will never come to grips with the country’s healthcare spending if we don’t align the interests of employers and their employees in tackling many of the cost drivers. We are pleased to work with Dossia to remove some of the barriers that have traditionally hindered employee engagement. This represents a major step forward in our joint mission to drive consumer-initiated change through informed health decision-making.”
About Health Language
Denver-based Health Language, Inc. (HLI) develops and delivers state-of-the-art software solutions that automatically incorporate medical vocabulary and coding standards into healthcare information technology (HCIT) applications. HLI’s Language Engine (LE) allows centralized access to medical terminology standards and generates mappings to create a common pool of standardized codes and concepts that enhance patient safety, facilitate clinical outcomes analysis and accelerate reimbursement. It also provides standards for modeling, storing, updating and distributing information consistently for interoperability between hospitals, regions and countries. For more information, visit www.healthlanguage.comor call 720-940-2900.
About Dossia
Dossia is a non-profit organization consisting of several large U.S. employers who have united under a common vision: to empower their employees to make smarter more informed decisions about their healthcare. Through Dossia, they will leverage their combined influence to break down barriers to health information, which will help drive consumer-initiated change. The Dossia Founders group includes AT&T, Applied Materials, BP America, Cardinal Health, Intel, Pitney Bowes, sanofi-aventis, Celgene, Vanguard Health Systems, and Wal-Mart. For more information, visit http://www.dossia.org.
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