A Medical Device Daily

Royal Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and the Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA; Boston) reported that Philips Consumer Healthcare Solutions has been awarded a contract as the preferred provider for telehealth products and services for VNAA members.

VNAA serves as a group purchasing organization and has selected Philips' remote patient monitoring as its preferred telehealth offering, and it said that Philips Lifeline is the VNAA's preferred provider of medical alert services.

Philips said it is offering a comprehensive telehealth program to VNAA members, including wireless telemonitoring measurement devices, robust clinical content — including patient education, validated health surveys and risk assessment tools — as well as "innovative" pricing models and service delivery and implementation support. Philips also launches its risk assessment service as part of the VNAA contract.

The telephone-based screening is intended to help agencies stratify their patients based on risk, identify care intervention opportunities, and determine which patients may be suitable candidates for telemonitoring.

VNAA President/CEO Carolyn Markey, said, "Philips brings state of the art software and wireless hardware, as well as a one-of-a-kind financial model to the array of options in telehealth. Many of our members who thought that they could not afford a telehealth program will now be able to think again. We have had a long standing relationship with Philips Lifeline, which has been a model collaboration, and we look forward to enhancing that partnership through the Philips telehealth program."

Philips Consumer Healthcare Solutions offers telehealth solutions for home care and disease management, including remote monitoring for patients with chronic conditions, risk assessment services, and Motiva interactive platform for patient education and self-management.

The VNAA is the national association for non-profit, community-based Visiting Nurse Agencies that care for about 4 million patients annually. The nation's network of 415 or more Visiting Nurse Associations employ about 150,000 professionals and share a non-profit mission to provide compassionate home healthcare to the elderly and individuals with disabilities.

In other contract news: Inviro Medical Devices (Atlanta) said it has entered a new agreement with Premier Purchasing Partners (San Diego) that provides Premier members access to Inviro's portfolio of InviroSnap safety syringe products. The contract was awarded as part of Premier's Technology Breakthroughs Programs.

Jim Charlesworth, senior VP of sales for Inviro, said, "We are delighted, but not surprised, that our InviroSnap products have successfully passed through this process, and we look forward to presenting our comprehensive range of safety syringes to Premier members."

Inviro, maker of safe medication delivery systems, including the InviroSnap Safety Syringe, said it is addressing the growing $1.6 billion safety syringe market and introducing its "breakthrough" infection control technology in North America to help address safety concerns.

The company's Snap Safety Syringe is a manually retractable syringe that provides protection and performance advantages, according to Inviro.