In the fourth quarter of 2008, Knappschaft Bahn See and the CompuGROUP subsidiary Gesellschaft für angewandte integrierte Versorgungsformen (GiV) mbH in the Saarland launched an innovative, fully practicable, integrated treatment programme: prosper Versorgungsmanagement Diabetes. The goal is to optimize treatment in order to improve the health of manifest diabetics and risk patients on a sustained basis. Apart from this top-priority medical goal, the programme is also expected to reduce the consequential costs of diabetes, which account for up to 80% of total treatment costs for these patients.

The foundation of the prosper programme is a health-care network established by Knappschaft and composed of family doctors, specialists and hospitals in a given region. The prosper Saar health-care network consists of over 300 physicians, of whom 50 are now participating in the interdisciplinary, cross-sector prosper Versorgungsmanagement Diabetes programme.

The heart of prosper Versorgungsmanagement Diabetes consists of a central, indication-based case file and an innovative diagnostic and treatment path derived from data contained in the file - both elements developed by CompuGROUP. All relevant information is entered in the file by participating physicians. It includes comprehensive treatment data on Type 2 diabetes patients as well as information about identified risk patients. On the basis of this medical data, the treatment path provides specific guideline-oriented recommendations for treatment teams at the moment a medical decision needs to be made. The diabetes mellitus path was developed by the medical team at CompuGROUP in consultation with the renowned expert Prof. Dr. Werner Scherbaum of Düsseldorf. "Our goal is to offer doctors only those 'bits of information' they really need - at precisely the right moment and integrated directly into the physician's workflow", explains Frank Ladendorf, Managing Director of GiV.

Prof. Dr. med. Werner Scherbaum, Director of the Endocrinology, Diabetology and Rheumatology Clinic at the Düsseldorf University Hospital, goes one step further: "The prosper Versorgungsmanagement Diabetes programme responds to the repeatedly expressed appeal for a practicable diagnostic and treatment system controlled primarily by family physicians. Specialist treatment can be integrated without difficulty. Making the best use of existing resources, developing them through innovation and thus doing more for patients and their health - these are the primary objectives of prosper Versorgungsmanagement Diabetes."

Frank Ladendorf emphasizes the potential savings for health insurers: "We are already seeing evidence that prosper Versorgungsmanagement Diabetes enhances the efficiency of patient treatment while ensuring quality and cost-effectiveness on a sustainable basis. Our software makes a valuable contribution in that context. I'm sure", Ladendorf adds, "that other health insurers will soon be using intelligent-software-aided systems of this kind to increase efficiency as well."

"We hope to find out", says Hans Adolf Müller, Health Management Director at Knappschaft Bahn See, "whether this innovative decision-support system will enable us to help our policyholders more effectively and to provide more systematic support to treating physicians and their teams." CompuGROUP has proven to be a strong partner. As the market leader, CompuGROUP has broad, central access to practising physicians thanks to the widespread use of its physicians' information system.

According to Frank Ladendorf, "Treatment management systems of this kind work only if they are accepted by physicians. We gain that acceptance by integrating the system into existing workflows and by ensuring complete transparency - with respect to prescriptions, for example." The pilot project is scheduled to run until the end of 2009, after which it will be evaluated for the purpose of assessing the practicability and the added benefits of this form of integrated treatment. If the positive results shown thus far are confirmed, the programme will be launched on a broad basis and expanded to include other guideline-oriented patient paths for other widespread diseases in 2010.

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CompuGROUP is one of the leading e-health companies worldwide. Its software products, designed to support all medical and organizational activities in doctors' offices and hospitals, its information services for all parties involved in the healthcare system and its web-based personal health records contribute towards safer and more efficient healthcare. The services of CompuGROUP are based on its unique customer base of around 326,000 doctors, dentists, hospitals and networks as well as other service providers. CompuGROUP is the e-health company with the biggest coverage among e-health service providers worldwide. The company operates in 14 European countries, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and in the USA and currently employs around 2,700 people.