PharmaSmart International, an innovative blood pressure management, Health IT and Pharmacy Services company, and Microlife Corporation, a global leader in cardiovascular diagnostics, announced a new strategic partnership. The companies stated that the alliance will create a network of validated solutions for “out of office” risk factor assessment. The partnership will align complimentary technologies, expertise, and market presence to offer healthcare providers, payers and pharmacists an integrated solution for patient diagnostic screening. The combined screening venues will include community pharmacy, workplace, home, medical clinic, and ambulatory monitoring.
Rochester, New York (PRWEB) August 19, 2012
The partnership will align patented technologies for the management of blood pressure and obesity, and for the detection of atrial fibrillation, a leading cause of stroke. (1) in (4) Americans over the age of 40 have a chance of developing atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is often undetected, and causes an estimated 75,000 strokes per year. Hypertension affects (1) in (3) of Americans, and is the #1 contributing factor to premature death and disability in the USA. It is critical to identify patients with hypertension and atrial fibrillation, as treatment dramatically reduces the risk of death, disability, or development of serious co-morbid conditions.
Microlife CEO K.Y. Lin stated “For many years we have recognized that, in the US market especially, the pharmacist is on the front lines of cardiovascular disease management. What they lack is validated screening tools that connect them to the care paradigm. Our strategic partnership with PharmaSmart will offer the pharmacist new tools to collaboratively detect and manage hypertension, and screen for atrial fibrillation. By integrating our devices into PharmaSmart’s interoperable Health IT network, we can bring the patient, pharmacist, and primary care physician together on the same page. Research shows that this improves outcomes and reduces total healthcare costs.” PharmaSmart President Fred Sarkis stated, “Millions of Americans are walking around with hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and other risk factors that are undetected or misdiagnosed. During our exploratory discussions, we found that Microlife and PharmaSmart are aligned in our commitment to improving the quality and quantity of diagnostic measurements globally. Working together, we can offer the healthcare system a multi-tiered solution for population screening that just doesn’t exist today.”
The companies announced that the industry leading Microlife Watch BP™ product line of home healthcare and ambulatory diagnostic solutions will be integrated into PharmaSmart’s patented “BPT Suite ™” data network. The “BPT Suite™” network delivers patient specific biometrics electronically to providers and patients through EHR integration, and to patients through mobile devices and web portals. PharmaSmart’s “BPT Suite” data network now houses over 13 million individual patient biometrics, and is growing by 600,000 results/month.
The companies also announced that the next generation PharmaSmart health kiosk (currently in development) will be “Powered by Microlife”. The device will combine the strength of PharmaSmart’s universal blood pressure cuff and Microlife’s industry leading cardiovascular screening technology. Fred Sarkis added “Working with Microlife and our retail partners, we will launch a national atrial fibrillation screening and education program that will put pharmacists on the front lines of stroke prevention. We believe such a program has the potential to significantly reduce the national incidence of stroke, and reinforce community pharmacy as a key player in disease prevention.”
About PharmaSmart
PharmaSmart International, headquartered in Rochester, NY, manufactures and distributes validated health kiosks and maintains an interoperable biometric database with over 13 million patient diagnostics. PharmaSmart currently serves more than 6000 locations, including retail pharmacies such as Wal-Mart Canada, Nash Finch, Safeway Canada, Coborn’s, Loblaw’s, Roundy’s, Smart Med Rx, Leader, Good Neighbor, Le Groupe Jean Coutu, Shoppers Drug Mart, Rexall/Katz Group, Zellers, Sobey’s Lawton’s, Astrup Drug, Winn Dixie, Big Y Foods, and other fine pharmacies. PharmaSmart also serves major worksites, military bases, hospitals and medical clinics and presently engaged in over (5) Regional and National Retail/Worksite Pilot Projects. For more information visit http://www.pharmasmart.com or contact Corporate Communications Mary Ann Rutkowski at (800) 781-0323.
About Microlife (4103, Taiwan)
Microlife Corporation, headquartered in Taipei, is global market leader in the development and manufacture of innovative medical measurement devices for clinical and home use. Areas of competence include blood pressure devices, atrial fibrillation detection, weigh scales, digital thermometers and peak-flow-meters. The Taiwanese corporation has 2,400 employees worldwide and manufactures more than 20 million devices for its affiliates in Switzerland and the USA, and for sales partners around the world. Microlife’s mission lies in the research and development of innovative technologies that allow patients to monitor essential health parameters independently. To learn more about Microlife, visit http://www.microlife.com/about/.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/8/prweb9813063.htm
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