Quantum and IBM Align to Drive Medical Home Solution
April 08 2009 - 3:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
WELLINGTON, Fla. and CHICAGO, April 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The
Quantum Group, Inc. (NYSE Amex: QGP) following the conclusion of
the HIMSS09* conference in Chicago, announces its collaboration
with IBM (NYSE:IBM) to facilitate IBM's Patient Centered Medical
Home (PCMH) solution - a solution that provides physicians with a
21st Century process for electronic records integration,
management, analysis and communication across the healthcare
ecosystem. The resulting, EMR-enabled primary care practices will
meet President Obama's vision of an information-based, connected
healthcare system. Despite the national focus on healthcare reform
as accelerated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
physicians across the U.S. are asking for practical and affordable
ways to integrate digitized healthcare technologies into their
practices. PWeR(TM) (Personal Wellness electronic Record(TM)), the
Quantum healthcare information technology platform, helps to answer
those questions by providing the essential connectivity required to
facilitate the IBM Medical Home solution Pc3, Patient Centered
Collaborative Care. Noel J. Guillama, Quantum President & CEO
commented, "The Medical Home market is estimated to be a
multi-billion dollar opportunity, not including but supported by
the $19 billion federal Stimulus Package for healthcare reform. We
believe, based on current projections, that we will have our first
group of more than 400 physicians on PWeR in the third quarter of
this year." The PCMH solution is advocated by the Patient-Centered
Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) (http://www.pcpcc.net/), a
coalition of large employers, primary care societies, national
health plans, patient groups, and others. Dr. Paul Grundy, Chairman
of the PCPCC and IBM Director of Global Healthcare Transformation,
commented, "The purpose of PCMH is to provide patients with a
primary care team that will provide continuous and coordinated
care. By engaging patients with their physicians, they can take
real accountability for their health. This will create savvier
consumers of care and ultimately better health outcomes. Technology
will drive the connectivity required to facilitate this objective
and we see PWeR as one of the tangible assets that can be used in
these efforts. We believe that the development of PWeR is an
ongoing process that will continue to evolve with the active
engagement and involvement of primary care physicians." "Industry
reform will begin from the inside out," said Dan Pelino, IBM
General Manager Global Healthcare Industry. "Change will begin by
empowering the physician/patient relationship and it is companies
like Quantum, those with business models driven by
physician-centric services, that will drive this reform. Quantum's
physician services coupled with the PWeR platform provide a
tangible and immediate strategic deployment to market." Ronald S.
Smith, Quantum Senior Vice President added, "The integration of
PWeR into the Pc3 solution will position primary care physicians to
engage in the CMS Medical Home program and provide access to added
financial revenues not before realized. Doctors can potentially
earn from $27 - $100 per eligible member per month based on current
estimates, in addition to traditional fee for service fees. We plan
to work with the physicians to help navigate the application
process. We anticipate that when the final regulations are released
that our system will allow the physician to qualify for the
Stimulus Package monies as the EMR application of PWeR is 2009
CCHIT certified and meets the current CMS Medical Home
requirements. PWeR is a next generation technology platform that
bridges physicians to their patients, hospitals, clinics and
related professionals through a Software as a Service (SaaS) and an
IBM Hosted Cloud Computing model. Cloud Computing involves the use
of scalable resources including virtualized storage and business
recovery services that are provided as a service over the Internet.
Users do not require knowledge of or expertise in the technology
infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them. Cloud computing
is a natural fit for physician offices as it eliminates the costs
associated with in-house, sophisticated server hardware, simplifies
records management and facilitates the communications among each
patient's unique care team. This IBM hosted cloud computing
approach provides the highest levels of security and privacy to
health records. The PWeR architecture is a seamless approach to
facilitating the Medical Home model. PWeR differentiates itself
from other traditional electronic medical record (EMR) applications
as it embodies a patient-centric, web-based approach that
centralizes the multiple sources of patient data in one location.
Current applications capture patient data and only retain it in the
computer of the recording physician or hospital. PWeR is
architected as a system incorporating multiple applications, which
include EMR, practice management, billing, e-labs, e-prescriptions,
disease management, medical home, messaging, kiosks and many other
key functions. EMR is simply one application in this comprehensive
system as PWeR follows the entire healthcare delivery process. PWeR
is further supported by IBM products and services including
e-Business Hosting provided by Global Technology Services, Call
Center, and services including Integration Services, Health
Information Exchange (HIE), AMS, Consulting and Development.
Quantum will be migrating to the entire Blue Stack, including
Websphere, DB2, and Cognos. Quantum and IBM believe that the PWeR
architecture is in line with the national agenda for healthcare
reform. As President Obama seeks to infuse efficiencies, reduce
costs and improve patient care by leveraging technology, PWeR looks
to facilitate these objectives. About The Quantum Group, Inc. The
Quantum Group (http://www.quantummd.com/) provides business process
solutions, service chain management, strategic consulting and
leading edge technology innovations to the healthcare industry.
Through our dynamic patient-centric architecture, we empower the
communication that is critical for the coordination of care and
take aim at the $700 billion inefficiency gap in the United States
healthcare industry. We are guided by a mission to develop
efficiencies, improve the quality of patient care and achieve cost
reductions for the nation's largest and fastest growing industry.
We have developed leading-edge technology with the creation and
deployment of a series of innovative patent-pending initiatives.
Through approximately 2,000 healthcare providers and multiple
insurance company relationships under management, we are positioned
to be a catalyst for change to the healthcare industry. *HIMSS -
Health Information Management Systems Society Certain statements
contained in this news release, which are not based on historical
facts, are forward-looking statements as the term is defined in the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are subject
to substantial uncertainties and risks in part detailed in the
respective company's Securities and Exchange Commission 10-K, 10-Q,
S-8, SB-2, S-1 and 8-K filings (and amendments thereto) that may
cause actual results to materially differ from projections.
Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words
such as "expects," "plans," "will," "may," "anticipates,"
"believes," "should," "intends," "estimates" "could" and other
words of similar meaning. These statements are subject to risks and
uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and,
consequently, actual results may differ materially from those
expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such risk
factors include, without limitation, the ability of the Company to
properly execute its business model, to raise substantial and
immediate additional capital to implement its business model, to
continue revenue growth trend in fiscal year 2009, to control
patient medical cost relative to income received, to attract and
retain executive, management and operational personnel, to continue
growing its patient base, to negotiate favorable current debt and
future capital raises, to negotiate favorable agreements with a
diversified provider base and HMO clients and to continue to supply
the services needed by these HMO clients as well as provider
clients. We have further risk in the deployment of our PWeR(TM)
technology platform and the continuing infrastructure development,
hosting, security, sales and servicing; further potential
complications by the utilization by our clients, technical and
software setbacks, cost of development, as well as the capital to
deploy it as well as pricing and completive pressures. We are also
subject changes in federal and state government regulations dealing
with both our provider system and our technology solutions that
could have a material economic affect and cause interruptions of
services. We are also subject to contractual risk, expenses and
compliance with our alliance partner(s) agreements. The Company
does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statements. As a result, investors should not place
undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. FOR MORE
INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: RedChip Companies Dave Gentry:
407.644.4256 x104 or PR Financial Marketing Jim Blackman:
713.256.0369 or The Quantum Group, Inc. Danielle Amodio:
561.798.9800 DATASOURCE: The Quantum Group, Inc. CONTACT: Danielle
Amodio, The Quantum Group, Inc., +1-561-798-9800, ; or Dave Gentry,
RedChip Companies, +1-407-644-4256 x104, ; or Jim Blackman, PR
Financial Marketing, +1-713-256-0369, Web Site:
http://www.quantummd.com/
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