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Aetna Extends Disease Management Program With LifeMasters
Successful Relationship Results in Seven Year Contract Renewal
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 06/08/2005 -- In recognition of four consecutive years of a highly successful collaboration, LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc., a leading provider of disease management programs and services, today announced a seven year contract renewal with Aetna Health Management, a division of Aetna, Inc. This award-winning relationship has been marked by strong collaboration on program design, annual increases in members who participate in the Aetna Healthy Outlook Program®, improved member satisfaction and better health outcomes.
"Our decision to renew and extend our contract with LifeMasters is the result of a successful collaboration over the past four years," said William C. Popik, MD, Aetna Chief Medical Officer. "This relationship has reinforced our belief that targeted activities, education and member involvement in their own care can play a significant role in enhancing the quality of life for members who are living with chronic diseases."
The Aetna Healthy Outlook Program® is a suite of condition-specific disease management programs that coordinate education, counseling, member self-care and physician support to help their patients manage their condition. Once identified and enrolled, members receive educational materials and, in some cases, individualized case management, with an emphasis on lifestyle changes.
LifeMasters' services are incorporated into Aetna's disease management programs for chronic heart failure (CHF) and diabetes. Program participants are coached by trained nurses to understand their symptoms, improve compliance with their physician's treatment plan and increase communication with their physicians, so that potential problems are discovered earlier and addressed, helping to avoid preventable medical costs.
LifeMasters is committed to working hand-in-hand with health plans and other payors to create disease management programs that have a positive impact on the health of the chronically ill while potentially decreasing their high costs of care.
"We have worked closely with Aetna to design and implement a disease management program that best meets their needs and the needs of their members and customers," said David Strand, LifeMasters' president and chief executive officer. "Both companies entered this relationship four years ago with a deep commitment to the collaborative process and a shared passion for excellence. We look forward to continuing our relationship in the years to come, working together to help Aetna's members with chronic disease achieve optimal health."
About Aetna
As one of the nation's leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care benefits, Aetna puts information and helpful resources to work for its approximately 14.4 million medical members, 12.8 million dental members, 9.0 million pharmacy members and 14.0 million group insurance members to help them make better informed decisions about their health care and protect their finances against health-related risks. Aetna provides easy access to cost-effective health care through a nationwide network of more than 672,000 health care professionals, including approximately 400,000 primary care and specialist doctors and 4,084 hospitals. For more information, please visit www.Aetna.com. (Figures as of March 31, 2005)
About LifeMasters Supported SelfCare
LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc. is a leading provider of disease management programs and services that create health partnerships among individuals, their physicians and payors. Its mission is to empower individuals to achieve and maintain optimal health. The programs improve quality of care for people with chronic illnesses, reduce chronic-disease costs for payors and provide decision-support tools for physicians. LifeMasters offers programs for individuals with diabetes, congestive heart failure (CHF), coronary artery disease (CAD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma (all of which are fully accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)), hypertension, and musculo-skeletal pain. LifeMasters' programs are holistically focused and support clinical co-morbidities such as depression and facilitate lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation and weight loss. LifeMasters provides services to more than 400,000 people throughout the nation.
Founded in 1994 by a Harvard-trained physician, LifeMasters works with some of the nation's leading health plans, employers, retirement systems and governmental organizations, including Aetna, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (Medicaid) and CMS. More information about LifeMasters can be found at www.lifemasters.com or by calling 1-800-777-1307.
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Contact:
Denise Apcar
LifeMasters
(650) 829-6217
dapcar@lifemasters.com
SOURCE: LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc.
Feel Full on Less Eggnog and Fudge with Nanoparticles
Science News Keywords
WEIGHT LOSS OBESITY NANOPARTICLES HOLIDAYS WEIGHT GAIN
Tiny nanoparticles can make a big difference when it comes to weight loss and obesity. These microscopic medical devices can help people feel full on a smaller amount of food, researchers say.
Newswise — Utah State University researchers are in the early stages of scientifically tricking the body into eating less and finding a treatment for obesity without dangerous side effects.
“You could call it an invisible diet,” said Tim Gilbertson, Utah State biology professor “It’s really simple. This technology will help people to feel satisfied with a small serving of food instead of a large helping.”
The process involves nanoparticles, or microscopic medical devices, said Gilbertson.
A feeling of fullness is created by a smaller amount of food when the nanoparticles are inside the cells because the nanoparticles are made of the same fat molecules that are naturally in the body’s cells.
The lipid molecules are replicated in the laboratory and then directed toward specific fat cells in the body. In obesity treatment, the fat cells in the intestines are used.
“We’re trying to trick receptors into thinking they have fat when it’s actually not there,” said Gilbertson.
Although the research is in the early stages, Gilbertson’s team is encouraged by preliminary results and the technology’s success in other medical fields. Nanoparticle treatments are already used as treatments for some forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
“Our bodies, our taste buds, are trained to help us get the nutrients we need,” said Gilbertson. “For instance, our ability to taste sweet things helps us identify foods with carbohydrates. Our salty taste helps us find minerals. And our general aversion to bitter foods helps us avoid ingesting poisonous substances.
In recent years, scientists have made great strides in identifying molecules that explain how we identify those different things, but the general consensus was that fat had no taste, said Gilbertson."
“Early in my career, I asked the question, ‘If fat is the most nutritionally dense energy source we know of, shouldn’t we be able to taste it?’” he said.
Subsequent tests by Gilbertson showed that fat does in fact have a taste, but not just on specific subsets of cells as sweet and salty tastes do.
“We found that 90 percent of taste buds can detect fat, but instead of having a specific taste, we believe its main role is in enhancing existing flavors,” said Gilbertson. “Fat makes sweet foods taste more sweet and salty food more salty.”
What’s more, Gilbertson found that fat receptors are not just located in the mouth but are found throughout the entire body. The job of the receptors, some of which are located in the small intestine, is to send chemicals to the brain that signal when we’ve ingested fat. In some people, these fat receptors are not as sensitive, causing these individuals to eat more fatty foods than someone who has more sensitive receptors, he said.
“Therefore, one approach is to fool our body’s fat sensors into thinking we’re eating fat by developing fat substitutes that target this particular receptor,” said Gilbertson. “The problem is that these receptors are in many places in the body, and we only want to target those that directly control food intake to avoid harmful side effects.”
One solution, said Gilbertson, is to develop nanoparticle technology that can find the fat receptors in specific sites only. The particles could deliver a drug to cause the cell to increase its release of feeding-related hormones, the chemical signals that are sent to the brain when food, in particular fat, is ingested. The goal, then, is for people to be satisfied with eating a lower fat diet. Gilbertson’s lab is working on identifying the drug that will speed up production of these satiety hormones.
Nanoparticle technology combines basic biology with advanced biomedical engineering tools. This is a completely novel approach to counteract dietary-induced obesity, Gilbertson said.
Unlike most conventional drugs that spread through the entire body and treat all cells indiscriminately, nanoparticles are tailored to only treat specific types of cells or tissues. This helps prevent the serious side effects often experienced with drugs, including nausea and hair loss from chemotherapy, heart attacks and strokes associated with osteoarthritis drugs like Vioxx, and heart valve damage occurring in patients who have taken Fen-Phen for obesity.
Measured in nanometers (one billionth of a meter), nanoparticles are small enough to slip through tiny openings in cell membranes. A special “target” chemical is attached to the nanoparticle, along with the treatment drug, and the chemical acts as a tiny escort, delivering the drug only to the specific cells that need it.
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