WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 -- The Disease Management Association of America (DMAA) in collaboration with Mitretek Systems of Falls Church, Virginia, announces the release of the industry report: "A Survey of Patient Call Centers and Communication Strategies: Enhancing Disease Management Service Delivery."

The announcement and report distribution to DMAA members took place at the 4th Annual DMAA Disease Management Leadership Forum held October 23-26, 2002 in San Antonio, Texas. The survey, overseen by DMAA Executive Director, Warren E. Todd and DMAA's Quality & Research Committee, was conducted by Mitretek Systems, Inc. and industry consultant Gary Montrose.

DMAA President, Jonathan T. Lord, MD of Humana stated that, "DMAA is proud to release the Association's first 'information product,' a 125-page compendium/report (plus CD-ROM) of where the disease management industry stands today and where it is headed as this fast growing and important sector of the health care industry devises strategies for connecting patients at home with their care management teams and DM program sponsors."

Dr. Lord noted that the report describes how communication systems are being used to improve patient access to services, the quality and continuity of care, patient safety and patient self-management strategies as called for in the IOM report "Crossing the Quality Chasm." The report includes the results of a survey, a "DM Technology Maturity Assessment," and a description of current and planned patient call centers, use of the Internet and other communication strategies across key sectors of the DM industry.

Richard H. Fiddleman, Senior Principal of Mitretek Systems, Inc., indicated that, "survey data was obtained from 39 disease management vendors, health plans and hospital systems. The survey findings show that the majority of the survey's respondents projected spending increases of between 6% and 15% over the next 1-2 years in customer service call center technology and staff spending. These spending increases are based on client demand and internal evidence of program effectiveness, indicating growing confidence in communication technology investments among key DM industry players. The survey respondents indicated that system integration, networking, clinical and technical staffing were among the greatest challenges facing the industry."

Survey respondents reported two-year budgeted commitments to increase use of Web access portals by 41%, Email by 48%, Instant Messaging by 75% and an increasing use of home monitoring devices for a variety of chronic conditions throughout 2003.

"Despite encouraging trends and intentions, deeper analysis from the survey indicates that adoption of the full range of patient call center/communication systems -- systems already in common use today in other customer service industries -- was 'somewhat discouraging' and 'less than what is ideally needed to maximize the promise of providing effective disease management services to the 125 million Americans suffering from one or more chronic health conditions,'" according to DMAA's Executive Director, Warren E. Todd. "Given the importance of call centers as a core component of disease management programs, we are very pleased that Mitretek has enabled us to issue this research-based 'challenge' to how we can more aggressively leverage call center capabilities/technologies."

Issues such as staff cross training in voice and digital technologies, inbound and outbound calling, virtual networks of call centers, use of home agents, advanced telecom systems used to integrate traditional call centers with digital messaging and other timely issues are examined in the report.

Copies of the report (hard copy and/or CD-ROM) are available to DMAA members at no charge or $295 per copy for non-DMAA members. Copies of the report can be obtained by calling DMAA at 202-861-1490, or by sending an e-mail request to John Hanna at jhanna@dmaa.org .

An executive summary will be posted on the web sites of both organizations. For more information or to order a copy of the report/CD-ROM, visit the DMAA's Web site at http://www.dmaa.org .

About DMAA

The Disease Management Association of America is a non-profit, voluntary membership organization, founded in March of 1999, which represents all aspects of the disease management community. For more information, please visit http://www.dmaa.org .

About Mitretek Systems

Mitretek Systems, Inc. (http://www.mitretek.org ) is a non-profit organization that provides conflict-free technology and business consulting services to numerous government and private sector clients. The company has an active healthcare consulting program that includes call centers, networking, security and related business processes.