Out with the old, in with Alere.
That’s the thinking of Inverness Medical Solutions, the Atlanta-based provider of rapid point-of-care diagnostics, which announced the rebranding effort during America’s Health Insurance Plans Institute 2010 last week in Las Vegas. Company officials say the move to bring everything under the Alere umbrella more closely aligns the diagnostics business with the its health management business unit.
“While seemingly a small change for those that already know Alere as a health management company, for the Inverness companies, the new brand extends and differentiates our value-proposition to encompass the importance of a tighter connection between health services and diagnostic products,” said Tom Underwood, CEO of Alere Health. “The global brand reinforces the concept that Alere provides healthcare that is connected, empowering and smart and reflects the vision to empower healthcare providers and the people they serve with the tools and information they need to make better decisions.”
Alere – a Latin word meaning “to care for” or “to support” – was formed as a health management business unit in 2008 when Inverness acquired and merged three companies, Alere Medical, ParadigmHealth and Matria Healthcare. According to Gordon Norman, the company’s chief innovation officer, the move to align all of Inverness’ brands under one name reinforces the “cradle-to-grave-healthcare” ideal that forms the basis for many of the healthcare industry’s efforts to adopt quality measures.
“We’re eager to demonstrate how Alere empowers individuals to take charge of their own health at home and how we provide physicians with access to timely and actionable information that drives better healthcare decisions and allows them to more appropriately and effectively direct care,” Underwood added.
Toward that end, Alere last month launched Collaborative Care Solutions, a new product line focused on supporting physicians and provider groups who are planning on supporting patient-centered medical homes or taking part in accountable care organizations. The line combines the company’s wellness and disease management programs with rapid diagnostic testing tools and Web-based collaborative care software from recently-acquired RMD and is integrated with the Apollo Health Management System.
Norman said Collaborative Care Solutions pushes actionable, timely and patient-specific information to physicians, helping to identify and eliminate gaps in care and promote healthy behaviors and decision-making.
“Providers can’t see it all themselves,” he said.