NEWS & RESOURCES 
| DPS Health and the GEHA are proud to announce the roll out of a pilot program for the Virtual Lifestyle Management service |
| Written by Administrator |
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For Immediate Release DPS Health and Government Employee Health Association Announce Roll Out of Pilot Program for the Virtual Lifestyle Management Service Los Angeles, CA – November 14, 2008 – DPS Health and Government Employee Health Association (GEHA) are pleased to announce the rollout of a pilot program for DPS Health’s Virtual Lifestyle Management™ (VLM) service. The VLM service draws on cutting-edge online technology to engage health plan members succeed at weight management. The VLM service gives GEHA care management nurses the tools to provide their patients with a clinically-linked, internet-based, weight management service that helps overweight and sedentary adults become more active, eat better, lose weight and live healthier lives. DPS Health worked with the University of Pittsburgh to improve patient engagement through web-based learning, tracking, and motivation to create the VLM service. The VLM service couples online education, guided self-discovery, barrier mitigation, goal setting, monitoring and tracking with internet-based coaching to present a proven, year-long, engaging intervention. GEHA, a Kansas City, Missouri-based health insurance plan covering approximately 400,000 federal employees, retirees and their families, plans to rollout a pilot of the VLM service to a limited number of members. The VLM will be offered in connection with telephonic care management, an existing part of the health plan’s offering. This pilot will test a variety of advantages of the VLM, including enabling nurses to more easily support patient self-management and how the VLM may complement existing health plan services. The pilot will examine how patient engagement through an internet-based system affects behaviors in the critical period between regularly scheduled nurse calls. Kathy Ross, manager of GEHA’s Care Management said, “VLM is a tool for the GEHA nurses in our Personal Health Management program, a program focused on the comprehensive needs of high-risk members. We believe it will provide a venue for the nurses and the program participants to have purposeful discussions about needed lifestyle changes. At the same time, VLM encourages participants to become personally engaged and take ownership for their own health. With the coaching support of a nurse and interactive VLM tool, we hope to see program participants demonstrate sustained improvements in nutrition, exercise, and weight control.” GEHA’s clinical supervisor for the pilot project, Kathy Johnson, set up the GEHA nursing team to use the tool themselves and provide coaching for other team members as a way of understanding the user experience and to figure out how to incorporate the tool into their practice. “It is clear that simply providing patients with good health education is not enough to create behavior change. Nurses have to think differently about how they interact with patients and change their approach to help patients discover their own motivation for change,” said Johnson. “By working with health plans such as GEHA, we will continue to learn more about how the VLM can fit into a wide variety of health care settings. GEHA is committed to providing members with cutting edge health care practices. Incorporating the VLM into GEHA’s health services furthers a commitment for our future ventures together,” said DPS Health founder and CEO, Neal Kaufman, M.D., M.P.H. Deeply concerned about the epidemic of weight-related illness, rising health costs and chronic conditions, Kaufman founded DPS Health to address serious chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, in order to help clinicians more effectively improve health outcomes of their patients. The impetus for this came from the findings of the landmark NIH-funded Diabetes Prevention Program. Kaufman is a proven leader who has built a record of trust through local, state and national efforts to improve public health About Government Employee Hospital Association GEHA is the second-largest national health insurance plan serving federal employees and retirees, as well as their families. GEHA has more than 220,000 health plan members and provides health insurance to nearly 400,000 people across the nation and around the world. About DPS Health DPS Health, formerly known as Diabetes Prevention Source, extends the practice of medicine to meet current and future health threats. The increasing prevalence of life-style diseases and consumer driven treatments require new and improved ways to engage, enlighten and motivate individuals to adopt and sustain health promoting and disease preventing behaviors. DPS Health creates software solutions through an innovative, flexible and scalable technological platform (Behavior Change Suite™) based on research-proven lifestyle coaching methods. University of Pittsburgh faculty worked with the DPS Weight Management division to develop the web-based Virtual Lifestyle Management service (VLM), based upon the Diabetes Prevention Program developed by the University of Pittsburgh. DPS Health is a licensee of this program for delivery through the VLM service. In addition, DPS Health has the Physical Activity Prescription™ to help sedentary and overweight adults become more physically active. All product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. For Press Inquiries Contact: Carol Eisner EISNER PUBLIC RELATIONS (310) 839-1400 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it # # # |
