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eHealth Initiative Announces Recipient of 2012 eHealth Innovator Award

For the past five years, eHealth Initiative (eHI) has recognized individuals and organizations that have demonstrated leadership and excellence in the field of eHealth. This year, eHI is proud to present Southeast Texas Medical Associates (SETMA) with the 2012 eHealth Innovator Award for their preventative health initiative, "Lose weight, Exercise, and Stop Smoking" (LESS).

The LESS program uses a simple yet effective approach to improving the health of SETMA's patients. Focused primarily on diabetes management and cardiovascular health, the program leverages an electronic health record (EHR) system combined with disease-management and population-health tools to allow providers to summarize patients' healthcare goals. Providers also counsel patients about losing weight, exercising, and quitting smoking at every patient visit.

"LESS is such an inspirational program because it transformed SETMA's EHR from a system that merely captures information to one with built-in tools and resources capable of transforming the lives of patients," said Jennifer Covich Bordenick, eHealth Initiative's chief executive officer.

The program has had considerable success, contributing to a leveling off in the prevalence of overweight and obese patients, a higher than average quit rate for smoking, improved diabetes management, and fewer racial disparities in the care of some chronic conditions. Further, the program empowers patients through open communication and distributing print-outs of the information generated by the EHR.

"The power of the LESS is that it is used throughout SETMA with the patient's personal data and name on every page," said Dr. James L. Holly, chief executive officer of SETMA. "One father, reading the LESS completed on his five year old by a SETMA pediatrician, wept and destroyed his cigarettes and lighter after he saw what second hand smoke was doing to his son. He has not smoked for 11 years."

About the eHealth Initiative: The eHealth Initiative (eHI) is a Washington D.C.-based, independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to drive improvements in the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology. eHI is the only national organization that represents all of the stakeholders in the healthcare industry. Working with its membership, eHI advocates for the use of health IT that is practical, sustainable and addresses stakeholder needs, particularly those of patients.www.ehealthinitiative.org.

About the Southeast Texas Medical Associates: Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP was founded in 1995 by James L. Holly, M.D. and Mark A. Wilson, M.D. Their desire was to form a group practice and design a healthcare delivery system which would integrate all of the various components of a family's health needs in a multi-specialty setting. SETMA's founding partners took the best of the old system, which has provided outstanding healthcare to Southeast Texas for decades, and merged it with a new technological approach to primary healthcare delivery. SETMA is committed to maintain the health of our patients, maintaining quality of life for our patients and to do this is in a cost-effective way.