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For immediate release
June 20, 2007
By: Amber Jesse, Virginia BioTechnology Research Park
Park tenant, Castle Technologies,
awarded $750,000 grant
Richmond, Va. – The Virginia BioTechnology Research Park announced today that tenant company, Castle Technologies, has been awarded a two-year $750,000 SBIR Phase II grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop and pilot a chronic disease prevention and management software tool.
Today, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (primarily heart disease and stroke), cancer and diabetes are among the most prevalent, costly and preventable of all health problems. Seven of every 10 Americans die each year — more than 1.7 million people — from chronic disease. The prolonged course of illness and disability from such chronic diseases results in extended pain and suffering and an overall decreased quality of life for millions of Americans.
“The CDC estimates that the costs of treating people with chronic diseases account for more than 75 percent of the nation’s $1.4 trillion medical costs,” commented Justin Samson, president of Castle. “Preventing and managing these diseases is virtually impossible without information systems that assure ready access to key data on individuals as well as populations of patients.”
President Bush outlined his vision that every American should have an electronic health record by 2014 due to the need for better information storage and retrieval methods in the health care industry. Policy-makers and physician leaders are counting on electronic health records to improve the quality of health care and revitalize practice by allowing accurate medical information to be quickly retrieved by heath care workers who are not patients’ primary care physicians. A report by the American College of Physicians forecasts that widespread use of electronic health records will save the health care system $77.8 billion annually — 5 percent of total health care expenditures in the United States. EHR systems will also reduce the cost of care by helping to prevent medical errors, which, according to The Institute of Medicine, kill up to 100,000 patients and cost $29 billion annually.
With the Phase II contract, Castle will continue development of a highly configurable and efficient chronic disease prevention and management system. It will focus on primary and secondary prevention along with a case management component for managing patients diagnosed with chronic disease. Castle will develop their system with the EHR in mind, utilizing industry standards. Castle will also pilot the software within the Phase II timeline, providing critical validation for the product.
“We are extremely excited to be working with the CDC in developing these systems and helping health care organizations transition to using electronic health record systems,” said Samson. “We believe our web-based product will become a standard solution in the health care field for chronic disease prevention and management.”
Contact:
Nicky Colomb
Virginia BioTechnology Research Park
Phone: (804) 828-6884
E-mail: ncolomb@vabiotech.com
Web site: www.vabiotech.com
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