November 2006
Medical First in Europe : Lower-Normandy region leads France in the use of Home Monitoring and Therapeutic Education of Chronic Heart Failure patients using a technology developed in Quebec.

November 2006 : Caen Teaching Hospital, associated with William Harvey and Trouville-sur-Mer Readaptation Centers has made public its involvement in a demonstration project of the New IT Healthcare technology applied to Chronic Heart Failure patients. The project is using the Intelligent Distance Patient Monitoring (IDPM) system developed by the Montreal based company and the clinical knowledge of the Lower-Normandy Cardiology Network headed by Professor Gilles Grollier. Halfway in the project, results are already indicating that the patients are highly satisfied of this new type of electronic monitoring and their compliance to monitoring plan are exceeding health professionals expectancies.

This experimentation is closely monitored by the Ministry of Health and by the Medicare Insurance Organization for a more substantial deployment of the technology in France. As mentionned by Mr Patrick Jourdan, initiator of the project and Director of URCAM of Lower-Normandy and Mr Dominique Blais, director of Lower-Normandy ARH “On top of the therapeutic benefits and the interdisciplinary collaboration enabled by the technology, the solution has financial appeal even if we are not seeking to spend less but to better spend for the benefit of patients”. There is between 500,000 and 1 million patients suffering from Chronic Heart Failure in France. New IT Healthcare technology can be generalized to other chronic conditions and to support other more episodic health problems offering a high performance environment for the delivery of at Home Hospital grade caring. Flexibility of the tool set available to the care giver allows for a full customization of the monitoring plan of each patient according to the health needs without any technological constraints.

In Quebec and Canada, New IT Healthcare has set itself apart by intensely partnering with clinical providers to develop state of the art technology attuned to the real world needs of health professionals. Its long lasting relationship with Anna-Laberge Hospital has enabled a first set of clinical protocols to closely monitor patient otherwise hospitalized and allowed full customization of monitoring plan to the specific needs of each patient. Sainte-Justine Teaching Hospital selected New IT Healthcare for its Home Monitoring Center and is actively involved in developing pediatric monitoring protocols. More recently, Gaspesia and Îles-de-la-Madeleine region has renewed for 3 years contract to fully exploit a Regional Telehomecare Program. Finally, many projects in Quebec are awaiting Canada Health Infoway financing like the Regional Home Care Services for Chronic Pulmonary Diseases in Montreal at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. These projects and others pending in Canada will assert the leading position of Quebec’s in the development of new technology to deliver quality driven care in a more efficient way.

About New IT Healthcare

New IT Healthcare is a fast-growing Montreal-based company, leader in the development of specialized healthcare solutions used by professional caregivers to remotely monitor patients requiring close supervision. New IT Healthcare develops, markets, deploys and supports a full suite of best-of-breed patient-care applications that reach out to patients within their homes, ensuring systematic and rigorous control of their health condition at all times. New IT Healthcare's Intelligent Distance Patient Monitoring (IDPM) solution enables healthcare organizations to establish and maintain, from a central telemonitoring facility, a personalized clinical follow-up plan applied via a bi-directional and secure electronic communication link between the patients in their homes and their team of healthcare providers. New IT Healthcare's mission is to develop innovative solutions designed to technologically support, improve and extend the health network's ability to deliver healthcare services.