Initiative Will Leverage Social Media and Mobile Messaging Tools to Improve Medication Adherence Through Improved Patient-Provider Collaboration
NEW YORK & LEXINGTON, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- UK Healthcare CECentral (CECentral), a full-service continuing education solution for healthcare professionals, in collaboration with Medikly and 2digiti, leading innovators in enabling social learning in healthcare, announced today the development of the Healthcare Disparities Action Learning Lab Initiative (HALI). HALI will provide participants with communication tools and cultural competency training to improve minority patients’ behavior as it relates to medication adherence. The clinical focus will be on cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.
Despite the availability of effective treatments, it has been well documented that minority populations have higher non-adherence rates and are disproportionately affected in conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. For example, data from the Office of Minority Health (http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/) has shown that:
In 2005, African-American men were 30% more likely to die from heart disease than non- Hispanic white males
- Diabetic complications (e.g., end-stage renal disease and amputations of the foot or lower leg) are more common among African Americans than members of other groups
- In 2007, Hispanic Americans were 1.1 times as likely to be obese than Non-Hispanic Whites
To address such disparities, CECentral with Medikly and 2digiti, will provide education through social media and mobile messaging tools to expand the knowledge, skills and cultural awareness of healthcare providers. This education will foster culturally competent care among participants so that they are better able to change the behaviors of patients with low adherence rates to therapy.
“With over 50,000 registered providers, CECentral serves as a great resource and platform to provide this type of critical education,” said James C. Norton, PhD, Associate Dean, UK College of Medicine, Director, UK HealthCare CECentral. “With HALI, we are hopeful that participating providers will adopt its unique combination of social media and mobile messaging tools and ‘just in time’ educational resources to improve the adherence rates of their patients.”
About UK Healthcare CECentral: UK HealthCare CECentral provides continuing professional development designed to maintain and advance the competence and/or performance of healthcare professionals with the goals of improving patient safety, facilitating patient-centered care, and enhancing clinical outcomes through educational activities built on a platform of evidence-based medicine and adult learning principles. For more information, visit www.cecentral.com
About Medikly: Medikly enables organizations to create medical communities and design and deliver medical education programs for healthcare providers. The Medikly platform was developed to address the social media and medical education needs of healthcare providers, ensuring that it provides a rich set of tools that facilitate learning, collaboration and communication. For more information, visit www.medikly.com or email [email protected].
About 2digiti: 2digiti is a leading provider of mobile messaging, education and outcomes platforms for the healthcare professionals. Designed to meet the "time and place" demands of today's healthcare professional, 2digiti has developed a suite of products and services used to engage and interact with healthcare professionals. For more information, visit www.2digiti.com or email [email protected].
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