The evaluations were carried out by the Hanover Medical School (MHH) under the direction of Prof. Volker Amelung and Dr. Christian Krauth and by almeda in collaboration with AOK Lower Saxony.

"The quality of the disease management program is very convincing. Patients benefit from close monitoring and care in a way that prevents life-threatening situations arising from chronic heart failure," explains AOK Board Chairman Dr. Jürgen Peter.

"We are very pleased to have demonstrated the medical and economic effectiveness of the telecoaching program based on positive test results. We look forward to continuing our successful cooperation with AOK Lower Saxony and not least we want to continue to make a significant contribution to the well-being of participants," said Dr. Stefan Kottmair, Managing Director of almeda, at the signing of the contract.

The results of the medical program evaluation show a significant improvement in the state of health of patients in relation to symptoms (shortage of breath, dizziness, oedemas), severity of illness (NYHA stage), blood pressure and Body Mass Index (BMI).

The findings explain the stabilisation and optimisation of living quality as observed and - particularly remarkable - the decrease in mortality among program participants.

On the economical side the evaluation shows how service expenditure has been reduced. Cost savings are particularly notable among defined subgroups, clearly recouping the funds invested in implementing the program. The contractual partners developed analytical procedures to describe the subgroups so as to be gear it more selectively towards insurees able to profit from the program.

The "Chronic heart failure" disease management program was developed by AOK Lower Saxony jointly with almeda. Program content is based on the recommendations of recognised national and international guidelines and is subject to ongoing quality assurance by a panel of experts.

The central element is so-called telecoaching, aimed at motivating participants to change their lifestyle: medically trained personnel provide participants with day-to-day support in the form of structured telephone consultation, promoting medication and therapy compliance and reminding them of appointments. Participants also receive written training material as well as electronic scales and a blood pressure gauge if required. Body weight and blood pressure figures are relayed to the care staff at the service centre via telemedical transmission, enabling dangerous lapses to be identified early on and intervention to be initiated swiftly as needed. The result is that individuals acquire the ability to manage their illness effectively on their own.

Press contact:

almeda GmbH
Thomas Holz, MPH
Public Relations
Tel: +49 89 480 59-164
presse@almeda.com

almeda is a quality supplier of integrated services and intelligent protection systems in the areas of assistance and health services. National and international companies from the insurance, healthcare, financial, automotive, travel and industrial sectors and public institutions entrust their customers to almeda. 400 top qualified employees provide a high level of service, helping people on health-related matters or in an emergency, 24 hours a day, worldwide and in 25 languages. almeda has accumulated decades of experience and has built up an international network of service providers and correspondents. almeda is a member of the ERGO Insurance Group which, in turn, is part of Munich Re.

With 2.4 million policyholders, AOK Lower Saxony is the market leader in Lower Saxony, collaborating with 155,000 employers as well as some 30,000 service providers. Its annual budget is 8.22 billion euros. The company operates 120 service centres with a total workforce of 6,755 staff dedicated to insurees' health.

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