ALERE INC
WALTHAM, MA, July 21, 2014 - Alere Inc. (NYSE: ALR), a global leader in innovative diagnostics and at-home testing platforms that empower patients while connecting them to their healthcare providers, announced today that its educational anticoagulation website, PTINR.com, has earned the distinction of certification from the Health on the Net Foundation(HONcode standard) for trustworthy information. To cope with the unprecedented volume of healthcare information available on the Net, the HONcode of conduct offers a multi-stakeholder consensus on standards to protect citizens from misleading health information.
PTINR.com, a website powered by Alere, is a resource for anticoagulation information and helps patients become more engaged in their own health by providing meaningful and high- quality information about living on warfarin. The site contains practical, referenced educational articles written by a variety of experts within the medical field. PTINR.com does not provide diagnosis or treatment advice; it is strictly informational for the benefit of patients living on warfarin.
"Whether they have recently started taking warfarin or have been undergoing therapy for years, it is important for all warfarin patients to stay well-informed. Alere is committed to supporting patient education efforts in order to improve the quality of care and safety for warfarin patients. This certification from the HON Foundation reinforces this commitment and assures PTINR.com visitors that our information is useful, reliable and accurate," said Gary Liska, Alere Global Director, Scientific Affairs.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration and Joint Commission support the need to educate patients and their families about safely managing their warfarin therapy. Studies have shown that patients who were more knowledgeable, skilled and confident about managing their warfarin health were associated with improved anticoagulation control and the reduction in the frequency of hemorrhagic events. 1,2,3
1 Metlay, JP., Hennessy, S., et al. Patient reported receipt of medication instruction for warfarin is associated with reduced risk of serious bleeding events. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2008. Oct; 23(10): 1589-97.
2 Yegian, J.M., Dardess, P., Shannon, M., Carman, K.L. Engaged Patients Will Need Comparative Physician-Level
Quality Data And Information About Their Out-Of-Pocket Costs. Health Affairs. 32, no.2 (2013):328-337.
3 Hughes, S., Messerly, S. Patient Education: A Critical Component in Caring for Patients on Warfarin. Journal of
Cardiovascular Nursing. Vol. 24, No. 2, pp 171-173.
The Health on the Net (HON) Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization accredited to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, promotes and guides the deployment of useful and reliable online health information and grants the code of conduct to medical and health websites that honor the eight principles of the HONcode as drawn up by the HON Foundation. The certification informs consumers and health professionals that a website provides a certain level of quality and transparency of information.
###
By developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health information technology, Alere enables individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life at home. Alere's global leading products and services, as well as its new product development efforts, focus on infectious disease, toxicology, cardiology and diabetes. Alere is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information regarding Alere, please visit www.alere.com.
|
distributed by
|
