DEVELOPMENT OF E-LEARNING TECHNOLOGY FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN PUERTO RICO
Impactivo celebrates its 10th anniversary announcing the development of innovative technology that identifies patient’s clinical and social needs and assigns defined workflows and individualized training to improve to improve chronic disease management and take advantage of new value-based payment reforms.
San Juan, July 1, 2020 – The Puerto Rican company Impactivo, LLC. commemorates its tenth anniversary with the announcement of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award for the only grant of this type provided by the agency for digital health in Puerto Rico. The company has received a Phase I and Phase II grant award totaling $925,000 in investment to develop technology that improves chronic disease management and teamwork at primary clinics, which are key to improving patient health and taking advantage of new value-based payment reforms. All proposals submitted to the NSF SBIR program, also known as the America’s Seed Fund, undergo a rigorous merit review process.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), six out of ten adults have a chronic illness and 90% of annual national health care costs are used to cover care for people with these conditions. Impactivo’s innovative technology will integrate data on social determinants of health and clinical outcomes for each patient to suggest coordinated workflows that address the patient’s needs and will apply precision education techniques to provide training support for each member and primary care team. The goal is to support to health professionals so that they can better coordinate the work of their team and provide continuing education based on the needs identified through the patient data.
The project is being designed for use at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The 1,373 FQHCs in the United States serve one in twelve people or 27 million patients annually in medically underserved areas. Public and private payment models are rapidly moving towards an incentive and bonus payment model, based on work team care metrics and demonstrated improvements in patient outcomes. Improvements in costs and outcomes of care for patients with chronic diseases will have an enormous social and economic benefit for the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Impactivo will roll out the project pilot in three Primary Health Centers: Costa Salud Community Health Centers, Salud Integral de la Montaña and the General Hospital of Castañer.
“NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by thinking beyond incremental developments and funding the most creative, impactful ideas across all markets and areas of science and engineering,” said Andrea Belz, Division Director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF. “With the support of our research funds, any deep technology startup or small business can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs.”
“We are honored to receive this important grant to develop cutting-edge technology that aligns primary care teams by optimizing communication, clarifying roles, and improving coordination to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. Our impact is directly aligned with the mission of the National Science Foundation to advance science to promote the health of the nation. This year, Impactivo commemorates its first decade by providing services that contribute to transforming health systems. We also just unveiled our new image and logo as a symbol of our continued commitment to health system transformation. We are extremely proud to be a Puerto Rican company that is making a difference in the field of health worldwide,” expressed María Fernanda Levis, principal investigator of the project and chief executive officer of Impactivo.
This grant also leverages the work that Impactivo has been doing as part of the Region 2 Public Health Training Centers Program of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in Puerto Rico, including our e-learning site in Spanish, the ImpACTivista Learning Hub, created with the objective of training Spanish-speaking health leaders from Puerto Rico, New York, New Jersey and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The site provides a free public health learning tools and educational resources to support a highly trained health workforce with a focus on vulnerable communities. The ImpACTivista Learning Hub is available to everyone and can be accessed at https://impactivo.com/training/.
For more information on the NSF-supported America’s Seed Fund, visit: https://seedfund.nsf.gov/