MORGANTOWN, W.VA. – The WVU Heart and Vascular Institute and Story Health, a health technology and services company building specialty care models for the future, today announced a new collaboration to improve access to specialty care for patients with heart failure.
The partnership combines the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute’s leadership in clinical quality and excellence with Story Health’s specialty care platform solution to extend access and improve health outcomes for an important population.
More than 6 million Americans have heart failure, a serious condition requiring lifelong care. Heart failure patients have complex needs that are challenging to address in clinic visits. As a result, patients often miss out on the treatment and support they need, leading to poor outcomes.
“We are working with WVU Medicine on a new care model that transfers more care into the home, where we can increase access, reduce inequities, and better leverage scarce specialist resources,” Tom Stanis, CEO and co-founder of Story Health, said. “We look forward to collaborating with the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute to help scale the care for their heart failure patients.”
The WVU Heart and Vascular Institute’s objective for this partnership is to improve treatment and experience for patients and their families, including increased access and medication support with the goal of improving heart function and reducing hospitalizations. WVU Heart and Vascular clinicians and Story Health coaches will work collaboratively to personalize patient treatments through a combination of structured clinical pathways, monitoring, and patient engagement.
“We’re always looking for state-of-the-art ways to care for patients with heart failure given the clinical importance of improving prescription access and adherence to life-saving medications,” Liz Davis, R.N., manager of the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute Heart Failure Program, said.
“Story Health offers an innovative and new approach that helps optimize medications, using an electronic engagement platform coupled with health coaches to put the clinical team’s plan in place. We are excited to partner with Story Health to learn how such a strategy can help us improve patient care.”
The initial work between the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute and Story Health will be a program that implements Story Health’s platform into the WVU Medicine system. The program is already underway, and whitepapers with the program results are anticipated to be published later this year.
“The WVU Heart and Vascular team continuously evaluates innovative ways to enhance the value of care we deliver,” George Sokos, D.O., associate chief of Cardiology and director of Advanced Heart Failure and Pulmonary Hypertension programs at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, said.
“This partnership with Story Health is an excellent example, offering a new approach in engaging and empowering patients. Together, we aim to reduce heart failure mortality while improving the quality of life for the patient.”
For more information about the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, visit WVUMedicine.org/Heart.
About the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute:
At the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, our experienced team of board-certified, fellowship-trained providers are performing groundbreaking and innovative procedures using cutting-edge techniques and technology not available anywhere else in the state. We are not only the leader in heart, lung, and vascular care in the state but also a national leader in innovative ground-breaking therapies and approaches to patient care. As an academic health institution and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded center, we bring access to the latest in clinical trials, and we are at the forefront of developing cutting-edge research. When it comes to the type of care we provide, we offer a highly personalized experience, which is why patients and community physicians from across our state, surrounding regions, and other countries look to the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute for its expertise. For more information, visit WVUMedicine.org/Heart.
About Story Health
Story Health is a healthcare technology company that is re-imagining complex care management, virtual care delivery, and patient navigation. With a technology-enabled and human-powered approach, Story Health is on a mission to transform each patient’s care journey by enabling clinicians and institutions to implement and scale continuous specialty care delivery to every patient with heart disease, leaving no patient behind. Story Health is led by CEO Tom Stanis, co-founder of Verily; President Nita Sommers; CPO Nikhil Roy; and cardiologist and CMO Ashul Govil, M.D. For more information, please visit StoryHealth.com.