New Disease States for USA Today “Most Influential Doctors” Database
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, every 70 seconds someone develops Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia affecting more than five million people in America alone. Their loved ones who are seeking a local medical expert to help guide them through the management of this difficult condition now have a place to start.
Qforma, today introduced the third phase of its online healthcare database “Most Influential Doctors,” or MID, presented by USA TODAY. Available at www.influentialdoctors.usatoday.com.
The first- of-its-kind database empowers consumers to easily identify local medical experts whom other physicians seek out for insight and counsel on the most widespread, chronic conditions.
“In 2011, the first baby boomers will reach their 65th birthdays, and people of this age and older represent the majority of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s,” said Kelly D. Myers, CEO of Qforma.
“An estimated 11 million family members are currently caring for their loved ones with the disease, and the new MID rosters enable them to find the most informed health providers in and around their home towns who are focused on the care of Alzheimer’s patients.”
The newly expanded MID rosters now include the top three-to-five physicians in virtually every U.S. metropolitan area for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and three other challenging conditions: chronic pain, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Pain is a silent epidemic in the U.S. An estimated 50 million Americans live with chronic pain caused by disease, disorder or accident. In the U.S. today, 10 million individuals are estimated to have osteoporosis and nearly 34 million more are estimated to have low bone mass, placing them at increased risk for developing the disease. Rheumatoid arthritis affects 1.3 million Americans, 70 percent of whom are women.
The initial MID rosters, released last year, include breast cancer, depression, osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
The MID database is built upon Qforma’s advanced analytic capabilities. Qforma’s proprietary technology – developed by some of the country’s top physicists, scientists and mathematicians – recognizes patterns in human interactions and reveals the most influential physicians in a given disease state or condition by geographic location. As opposed to using subjective surveys or opinion research, Qforma’s approach identifies the regional medical leaders highlighted by the MID lists through the objective analysis of millions of data points that reflect important collaborative indicators such as referral networks, practice patterns, publication history and leadership positions in professional associations.
MIDs interact regularly with self-selected groups of their respected peers to gain knowledge and make better decisions on behalf of their patients, and their colleagues look to them for medical opinion and best practices guidance. The MID database enables consumers to locate these “action leaders” in a given disease or condition in their local area and helps them make more informed decisions about community medical care.
