Healthwise Content Featured on 'Best Health Plan Sites'; Informed Patients Can Help Prevent Medical Errors

Business Wire, March 1, 2000

Health/Medical Writers

BOISE, Idaho--(BW HealthWire)--March 1, 2000

The three best health plan Web sites, as recognized by the 1999 eHealthcare World Awards, feature the Healthwise(R) Knowledgebase.

Blue Shield of California, the gold winner; Kaiser Permanente, the silver winner; and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota, the bronze winner, have selected Healthwise as their provider of consumer health information content. Kaiser Permanente was also recognized as the gold winner for the best managed care site.

"Healthwise creates prescription-strength information that consumers can use for making better healthcare decisions at home and with their doctors," said Don Kemper, CEO of Healthwise. "The Healthwise Knowledgebase is a safe and reliable Internet tool that people can trust."

Eight of the top ten managed care firms in the United States, as described in the December 1999 issue of Managed Healthcare, choose Healthwise. Top medical writers and editors from Healthwise bring the best medical research to the fingertips of the average consumer. The comprehensive, reliable consumer health information is produced in both book and software form. Every topic is referenced to medical literature and reviewed by one or more of the 65 national and international experts on the Healthwise medical review board.

"...Providing Healthwise self-care information increased member satisfaction, improved member access to Kaiser Permanente services, and increased member confidence in making medical decisions," said David S. Sobel, MD, MPH, director of patient education and health promotion for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California. "With that kind of success, it made good sense to integrate the Healthwise information into all our member health education initiatives."

More than 1,900 major topics, including medications, diagnosed conditions, medical tests and treatments, are covered in the Healthwise Knowledgebase. The Healthwise Knowledgebase is available as Web software and call center management software. The Healthwise(R) Handbook covers most common health problems and is often customized by health plans to refer the reader to the health plan Web site or nurse call center when additional help is needed. Healthwise books are consistently attributed with increasing member satisfaction, improving care and satisfying return-on-investment goals. Healthwise differs from other consumer health information sources in three important ways:

-- Healthwise information is always credible and reliable. It is created from
and referenced to evidence-based medical literature.

-- Healthwise covers more health problems, more thoroughly. The logical,
understandable decision points make the information easy to use.

-- Healthwise follows a 25-year tradition of consumer advocacy.

"Consumers are playing a greater role in managing their own healthcare options," said Dr. Bill Gold, chief medical officer at Blue Cross. "It is our job to break through the clutter of information and provide information to consumers that will make them better partners with their physician and their health plan."

Informed Patients Can Help Prevent Medical Errors

Healthwise has long supported the notion that an informed patient gets the best healthcare. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) encourages patients to be informed, active participants in their healthcare: "The single most important way you can help to prevent errors is to be an active member of your healthcare team. That means taking part in every decision about your healthcare. Research shows that patients who are more involved with their care tend to get better results."

"Information is the great equalizer in healthcare," said Kemper. "But not all information is created equal. Evidence-based health information helps the consumer speak the same language as their doctors and hospital providers. That means better decisions and better care."

About Healthwise

Healthwise, Incorporated, a nonprofit organization based in Boise, Idaho, has spent the past 25 years developing and providing trusted health information to consumers to help them make wise decisions about their health. Healthwise has distributed more than 15 million copies of its self-care books, which have contributed to saving consumers more than a billion dollars in healthcare costs. It can now reach nearly that same number of consumers on-line via the Healthwise Knowledgebase software and various Web-based partners, like iVillage's allhealth.com, using the Healthwise Knowledgebase as their premier content source.

The full Healthwise Knowledgebase is currently available through Web sites sponsored by such health plans as Kaiser Permanente, PacifiCare, Medica, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota and Blue Shield of California. Healthwise has also expanded into international markets, with clients in South Africa, Canada and the United Kingdom. More information is available about Healthwise, Incorporated, at http://www.healthwise.org or by calling 1-800-706-9646.