AT&T Announces New Initiatives for the Healthcare Industry

DALLAS, Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its momentum to help the healthcare industry improve patient care and reduce medical costs, AT&T* today announced two new patient care technology pilots, and new enhancements to the services delivered by AT&T ForHealth(SM), AT&T's healthcare practice area. The company also said it has been accredited to provide specialized information security consulting services to help healthcare customers streamline their security and compliance processes.

Specifically, AT&T announced:

Enhancements to AT&T Healthcare Community Online, the company's cloud-based health information exchange solution. These include:

• A mobility interface that now allows smartphones to access relevant patient information virtually anytime and anywhere in a highly secure manner.
• Access to 58 pre-integrated applications, including 22 new applications to help providers and/or patients perform a myriad of critical tasks, like managing diseases, or handling claims paperwork.
• Software that analyzes patient information and brings evidence-based medicine to providers at the point-of-care. This can help care providers manage chronic, complex and preventive health needs for individual patients or entire patient populations and enable them to track, manage and report to meet meaningful use requirements.

Two New Patient Care Technology Pilots – the company will conduct pilots of new technology with:

• St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) a $4.6 billion Catholic healthcare organization, plans to implement a new telehealth pilot project that will allow patients and physicians in disparate locations to meet and consult via immersive video utilizing AT&T Telepresence Solution®.
• Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), the country's largest customer-owned health insurer which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, plans to pilot the AT&T mHealth Manager diabetes management solution utilizing the WellDoc DiabetesManager®. The planned program will be initiated with HCSC employees to help them manage their diabetes in real time and connect them to care providers.

Security Consulting Services – AT&T is designated by the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) to act as a source for helping healthcare institutions with information security solutions that comply with state and federal reporting requirements. HITRUST approved AT&T as a common Security Framework (CSF) Assessor to perform assessment and/or certification services.

"We continue to innovate to help improve healthcare delivery through the use of technology," said Randall Porter, assistant vice president, AT&T ForHealth. "We look forward to meeting with the nation's leading healthcare organizations to discuss how our solutions can help them solve their most immediate and future needs."  

Last week, AT&T announced that John Muir Health and MuirLab have contracted with AT&T to deploy AT&T Healthcare Community Online. On Feb. 3, AT&T and Acuo Technologies® announced a strategic alliance to deliver vendor-neutral, cloud-based medical imaging storage solutions to help healthcare institutions solve their increasing data storage challenges.

AT&T will be demonstrating healthcare solutions at the HIMSS11 conference at booth #4862, at which the company will also discuss the following mHealth capabilities:

AT&T Global Smart Messaging Suite for Healthcare: This mobile messaging platform allows organizations such as providers, payers and pharmaceutical companies to use text messaging and e-mail to reach physicians, healthcare staff, clinics, hospitals and their patients.

AT&T Mobile Device Management Portfolio: Mobile Device Management solutions from AT&T help organizations to more easily manage, support and secure mobile devices and data, and reduce costs.

AT&T Machine-to-Machine Portfolio: M2M award winning technologies in healthcare include Vitality GlowCaps for medication adherence and MedApps for remote care monitoring.

AT&T mHealth Manager: Disease management solution utilizing the WellDoc DiabetesManager which helps patients better manage their chronic conditions. The solution includes an Automated Expert Analytics System™ that provides real-time, virtual coaching for the patient on their cell phone, and a suite of enterprise tools that enables nurse case managers to be more efficient and effective.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet and voice services. A leader in mobile broadband, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries.  It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T | DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising. In 2010, AT&T again ranked among the 50 Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE® magazine.

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SOURCE AT&T Inc.