Polaris Health Directions Inc.Improving the quality of life for adults with cardiovascular disease
The system is grounded in extensive National Institutes of Health-sponsored research on treatment effectiveness, outcomes management, and in medical studies of depression, anxiety and other CVD risk factors. Patients whose treatment included assessment and monitoring using Polaris-CV experienced fewer heart attacks, strokes, nights in the hospital and emergency room visits than control subjects in a randomized clinical trial sponsored by NIH.
Read about Albert Einstein Cardiac Rehab Center’s experience using Polaris-CV (pdf).
Product Highlights
✔ Full automation of Polaris-CV administration, scheduling, scoring and reporting
✔ Reliable and brief assessment of the severity of a patient’s depression and anxiety, and the identification of other psychosocial risk factors
✔ Normed on cardiac patients, the Polaris-CV system has been proven effective for reducing the number of false positives for depression among this population. Read about the study here.
✔ Increases the awareness of underlying mood disorders as a major cardiovascular disease risk factor, and can help motivate patients to seek treatment
✔ Analysis and reporting of individual/aggregate patient data to support clinical decision-making and treatment program evaluation
✔ Clinically actionable, real-time reports printed on site, which include an evidence-based indicator for hospitalization risk. Click here to view an example of an intake report produced by Polaris-CV.
✔ Availability of an abbreviated version to further reduce respondent burden
✔ Privacy-protected, HIPAA compliant database management
✔ Easily integrated into even the busiest offices, and compatible with existing Electronic Health Record systems
✔ Little to no additional burden for patients and administrative staff, no disruption of the clinical process, and no additional effort by the physician
How It Works
Polaris-CV was designed based on the findings of a two-year study in which 1,000 CVD patients were assessed for depression and monitored for two years. Polaris has used these data to provide our cardiac outcomes solution with numerous innovative features, most notably the prediction of risk for hospitalization (available spring 2011).
Patients entering cardiac treatment complete the assessment in the doctor’s office using a computer. The initial survey takes about five minutes. The survey used to monitor already-diagnosed depression takes less than three minutes. Once the assessment is finished, a report is immediately printed that provides information on the patient's history of depression, severity of symptoms of depression and anxiety, and his or her desire for treatment.
Based upon this and other information on the report, such as screens for bipolar disorder and recent bereavement, the cardiologist may wish to “watch and wait,” or prescribe medication in some circumstances. In others, a referral to a mental health professional for further evaluation and treatment for depression may be appropriate. The Polaris-CV report also indicates whether the patient has been in psychotherapy in the past and found it helpful.
The Value of Polaris-CV
Prevalence rates of major depression among people with cardiovascular disease (CVD) range from 15 to 23 percent. The number can approach 50 percent when you include patients who are experiencing serious symptoms of depression. These are persisting cognitive and somatic conditions that have a powerful impact upon cardiac prognosis.
Medical costs of untreated depression in CVD patients are high. Increased morbidity leads to higher medical utilization for depressed patients, whose rehospitalization expenses alone have been found to be more than four times those of undepressed CVD patients.
Yet depression is rarely diagnosed by either primary care physicians or cardiologists.
There is growing evidence that therapy and pharmacological treatment of depression for CVD patients result in improved quality of life and psychosocial functioning, and in reduced medical costs and cardiac morbidity and mortality. Even modest interventions can make a significant difference.
Learn more about the stakeholder benefits of Polaris-CV.
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