FAQs

Avalis Healthcare Systems disease

management products are the

most advanced and economically

scaleable on the market today.

As a cornerstone of our business development, we enjoy regular contact with medical professionals, opinion leaders, policy makers and patient groups. We see many of the same themes and assumptions emerge from these discussions, as a part of the process of developing an understanding of our technology and its role in healthcare.

Please if you need any further information about our company, products or services.

How Secure is Patient Data Entered into the System?

Avalis Healthcare Systems has consulted with international industry experts in secure data transmission and storage, to ensure absolute protection of patient identity and data.

Patient data is protected using the strongest possible symmetrical database encryption technologies (512 bit standard), SSL data transmissions over the Internet and operational policies that make it physically impossible to reveal a patient's identity, even in the event of total database theft.

Aren't Mobile Phones only for Young People? What Patient Usability Testing have you Carried out?

Avalis Healthcare Systems has carried out extensive EU patient usability studies with opinion leaders, test patient groups and customer patient groups covering an age range of 13-75. Contrary to popular assumptions, mobile phone based products were acceptance by older patients was found to be identical to that of the younger ones.

How does WebTV work and how much does it cost to set-up in a patients home?

We recommend the WebTV solution for patients who are elderly and home bound due to serious illness. The system requires any standard TV linked to a set-top box and Internet modem or broadband connection.

The standard TV remote control is replaced by a set-top box control that allows seamless TV use and internet access to the disease application at the push of a button. Using the recommended Avalis Healthcare Systems Hardware, the hardware costs are less than EUR 250.

What is the rate of patient compliance? Is your technology just a fad that patients stop using after a few weeks?

One of the key features of our products is the implementation of patient feedback and empowerment, such that the patient shares the knowledge of their condition and goals of therapy with their caregiver. Whether the patient is using a managed care or self care product, we see a greater than 95% level of compliance and continued long-term use.

Do Doctors Support your Products?

Avalis Healthcare Systems develops its products with an international network of more than 20 opinion leaders in chronic disease management. Practitioners in both primary and secondary care are also involved in our product development, support our approach to chronic disease management and use the product in their clinical practice.

Do insurance companies reimburse this technology?

In most cases, the use of our products is reimbursable by health insurance companies. However, the level and mode of reimbursement varies greatly between countries.

What are the cost savings your products actually deliver? What about outcomes, aren't they important?

From the first use, Avalis Healthcare Systems products deliver immediate savings through improvement in the process of healthcare delivery and patient management. Although actual savings are dependent on the healthcare organisation, there has not been a case where our products do not generate an internal profit and 30-40% savings over existing manual processes are typical.

Our own studies have demonstrated dramatic and sustained improvements in the clinical profile of patients using our managed care and self care products. However with such new technology, absolute outcomes benefits are not yet statistically available.

From the perspective of savings in process improvement, we see outcomes as a secondary metric and not useful as a single criteria for acceptance.

What are the Phone and Data transmission costs?

Data transmission costs vary widely by provider and service contract. For mobile phones, Avalis Healthcare Systems uses highly compressed data transmission over GPRS to transfer data from mobile phones.

From studies carried out with the major providers and most costly plans, daily data transmission typically costs the patient EUR 0.05/month. This is a fraction of the cost of either WAP or SMS based solutions.

For WebTV and other Internet transmissions, the cost is included in the standard ISP contract.

How do you integrate with existing data systems?

The Avalis Healthcare Systems Application Platform has an open XML/SOAP standard to enable easy integration with existing systems. The platform supports session management and SSL encryption of all communication.