Polaris Health Directions Awarded Grant to Study Depression and Anxiety in Patients Receiving Cardiovascular Treatment
August 25, 2003

Polaris Health Directions is pleased to announce it has been awarded a three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study depression and anxiety in patients receiving cardiovascular treatment.

Depression and anxiety directly affect clinical outcomes in cardiac patients but both conditions are often undiagnosed and untreated. The study will examine the impact of depression, anxiety and other psychosocial factors on cardiac outcomes, including myocardial infarction and hospitalizations.

During the three-year study, Polaris will collect data from 1,000 patients from five treatment programs nationwide. Each patient will complete at least six assessments throughout the course of treatment using Polaris’s proprietary software, Polaris-CV.

Polaris-CV allows physicians to detect depression and anxiety and allows treatment professionals to monitor the patient's condition and manage individual outcomes. The system produces real-time reports to support clinical decision-making and aggregates data for use in setting best practice guidelines, managing clinical outcomes and staff training.

The grant allows Polaris Health Directions to build on the successes of the initial phase of the study. Data from the initial project were presented in conjunction with the San Francisco Heart Institute at the 2002 American College of Cardiology conference. Over 40% of the patients tested in the initial phase of the study screened positive for depression, based on the screening method recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The study confirmed the reliability and validity of the scales for depression and anxiety.

Polaris Health Directions was founded by leaders in the field of clinical decision support and outcomes management. The expertise of its founders and staff has led to the development of comprehensive systems that support clinical care for a wide range of treatment populations. The system’s capabilities include automated data acquisition, data analysis, outcomes management, and real-time reporting.

For more information, send an e-mail to moreinfo@polarishealth.com.

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