Quebec, October 12, 2005
The Foundation of Temiscaming and New IT Healthcare sign a strategic development agreement for an innovative new product

The Foundation of Temiscaming and New IT Healthcare have signed an agreement for the strategic development of an innovative product in the field of systematic follow-up of home-based healthcare patients. The Foundation of Temiscaming distributes clinical pathways to French speaking populations around the world. These clinical pathways have been adapted from VNA First’s Home Care Steps Protocols®. VNA First developed this systematic approach to routine follow-up of homecare patients to ensure the patient received quality care.

Mr. Gilbert Ladouceur, Director of the Foundation says, “The existence of New IT Healthcare’s Clinical Content Editor has provided us a very interesting way to formalize our clinical pathways and make them available to our home healthcare professionals. In consultation with Gail Gahn, President of VNA First, we made the decision to develop an electronic version of the Home Care Steps and to promote this new product as an anchoring point in homecare intervention.” He adds, “Since the launch of this product on December 7 of last year, we have had the opportunity to observe how this business products helps meet the needs of healthcare professionals. New IT Healthcare has an ingrained culture of partnering with the clinical world that allows it to hear of the needs of a healthcare organization and develop the tools that perfectly reflect the care and services objectives of the organization.”

Mr. Louis Larouche, President of New IT Healthcare is particularly impressed with the wealth of clinical protocols of VNA First and is confident of the usefulness of the product that will be developed. “The clinical pathways that put forward routine health follow-up at home will contribute in a more productive way to the integration of interventions and the sharing of clinical information assuring better continuity of care.” The first clinical pathway will be available in March 2006. Subsequent clinical pathways will be developed while the first clinical pathways are being used by the healthcare professionals of Temiscaming.

Hewlett Packard is participating in the project by graciously providing a server and its Tablet PC for the duration of the project.

New IT Healthcare Technologies is a fast-growing Montreal-based company providing leadership in the development of specialized healthcare solutions used by healthcare professionals to monitor patients requiring close supervision. Its solutions favor keeping patients in their homes by offering healthcare professionals technological tools to standardize interventions with the best practices in therapeutic management. New IT Healthcare’s solutions are available in Canada and the United States.

Foundation of Temiscaming
The Health Center of Temiscaming introduced a routine follow-up model of home support services on April 1, 1998. The introduction of clinical tools was essential in order to improve the consistency of healthcare professional’s practices and to assure the continuity of care and services. The clinical pathways developed by VNA First are shown to be important tools to assure quality routine follow-up. We experimented with this model during the first year and since the experience was shown to be conclusive, this model was adopted on a permanent basis. The Foundation bought these clinical pathways for its own use and translated and adapted them to French. To allow other French health centers to profit from this approach, the Foundation signed an agreement with VNA First to distribute the French version. In 2000, the Center received the 3M Grand Prize of Innovation from the Quebec Order of Nurses for its routine follow-up program and in 2001 the Excellence Award from the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Quebec in the category of Customization of services.

VNA First
VNA First is a network of community-based agencies providing home health services throughout Illinois and Indiana and portions of Michigan. VNA First members have been dedicated to providing cost-effective, quality services in their communities for decades. Their dedication to quality has created innovative home health products, which they have made available to the industry. VNA First's critical pathways have been licensed in over 900 sites in the United States, Canada, Australia and Brazil. For more information on VNA First programs and products please visit http://www.innovativehcs.com/.

Source:
Foundation of Temiscaming and New IT Healthcare

For more information:
Louis Larouche, President
New IT Healthcare
(514) 762-2025 extension 470
louis.larouche@newittech.com

Gilbert Ladouceur, Director
Foundation of Temiscaming
(819) 627-3591

Gail Gahn, President
VNA First
(630) 778-3478