Martin's Point Launches On-Line Capability For Patients to Access Personal Physicians Via The Internet

(PORTLAND, Maine) á Martin's Point Health Care has taken patient care and treatment
in New England to a new level this month with the launching of a new Internet-based service that creates a cyber link between Martin's Point Health Care patients and their primary care physicians.

The new interactive service, Patient's Personal Points, allows patients from the Martin's Point facility in Brunswick, Maine, to discuss personal medical issues, request prescription refills and appointments, and seek health care information, all confidentially with the click of a mouse on their personal computers. Physicians and staff members, too, utilize the service to answer queries, remind patients of appointments, pre-screen patients and distribute personalized health- care information.

The service, created by MediVation, Inc., of Needham, Mass., utilizes web technology for interactive and confidential communications that are initiated by either the enrolled patient or facility staff in a password-protected area on the Martin's Point web site. The site, located at
www.martinspoint.org, uses encryption technology to protect confidentiality.

Martin's Point Health Care is the first primary care practice in Maine, the second in New England á and the third in the country á to offer this particular interactive electronic communication service.

"This is the kind of breakthrough technology that enhances communication between our patients and our medical team, and that's why it is so important," said Jan Wnek, M.D., medical director for Martin's Point. "Our intent is to expand this service and introduce Patient's Personal Points to all our patients at all our sites in the near future."

The MediVation program is the "leading edge" nationally in the growing medical "informatics" industry, according to Daniel Page, the executive director of the Health Commons Institute in Falmouth, Maine, a non-profit organization that promotes the use of computers as tools to improve communications between patients and their doctors.

The Martin's Point Health Care facility near Cook's Corner in Brunswick, which opened in May, is a test site for the new Internet service, free to patients. A survey done by Martin's Point showed that as many as 70 percent of the facility's 8,000 to 10,000 patients have Internet access, either at home or the office. Since Aug. 1, 126 patients have set up their own personal medical Web page using the service.

Patient's Personal Points offers the opportunity to provide "linked" patients with information on such issues as smoking cessation, weight control, stress management and disease control. Also, Martin's Point officials anticipate the service will increase overall efficiency by decreasing telephone traffic, improving medication management, streamlining the appointment- making process, and providing more access to nurses and physicians.

"Martin's Point is clearly an innovator in addressing the very important issue of improving communication between patients and health care providers," said Michael Cataldo, president of MediVation, Inc. "Patients will no longer need to go searching the Internet for health care information. It will be delivered securely by the most trusted source available - their own doctor."

Centrally located at the corner of Farley and Bath roads, the Brunswick health center features four family practice physicians, five pediatricians and a staff of 35 health care professionals.

Martin's Point Health Care, established in 1981, is a non-profit health care provider with additional facilities in Portland and Windham, Maine, and in Newington, N.H. With a staff of 290 health care professionals, Martin's Point serves approximately 44,000 patients in the areas of family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, radiology, cardiology, mammography and other fields. Martin's Point Health Care holds the contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide health care services for retired military personnel and the dependents of active duty personnel and accepts all major health plans and insurance, including but not limited to HealthSource, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Harvard Community Health Plan, Tufts Health Plan, Maine Partners, MSFHP and TRICARE plans.

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