Over the past twenty-seven years, you may have seen one of Computerized Screening, Inc.’s Health Stations at your local pharmacy offering blood pressure measurements. But look again: The Station, a digital, freestanding kiosk which measures blood pressure, heart rate, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI), among other options, has expanded its scope of services. Now, with a Pentium processor added to its patented vital signs measurement technology, the Station even offers an innovative way to conduct AIDS outreach. As the company searched for markets for its revitalized product, CSI discovered there was a need [in AIDS care and prevention] for a system like the Health Station, says Bob Sullivan, executive vice president of CSI, and launched the first Stations in Los Angeles. The idea is to bring HIV/AIDS information and resources to people in a non-clinical setting as they go about their everyday activities and hopefully bring individuals one step closer to testing or treatment.
“We make this very obtrusive,” Sullivan says. “At first, we didn’t know how the individual users might relate to the Station. We found, however, that it almost creates a crescendo of peer pressure to use the system. One person uses it and says, ‘Holy mackerel, look at this,’ and he goes and gets somebody else to use it. It grows by word of mouth.” Sullivan notes that the system is fairly easy to use: “It’s kind of intuitive when you sit down. Most people know it’s a blood pressure station because you see the cuff. Once you sit down and touch the screen, it walks you through the various things it’s designed to do.”
And that’s pretty much whatever a PC can do, including run a Web site. Says Sullivan: “We don’t have a set program. We give you a blank canvas, which obviously has some structure to it, but then you have a full palette of colors and you can paint the picture anyway you want it.” For example, when the City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) signed up for the system, CSI placed a Health Station in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County. The City of Long Beach developed the content and CSI programmed it. Now there are six total, scattered across four L.A. service planning areas. Whether the population is the homeless on Skid Row or MSMs in Long Beach, each Health Station is customizable to fit the needs of the ASO’s particular clients.
Health Stations can provide treatment information, contact information for local resources such as clinics and shelters, and it offers a survey feature that can be adapted to provide a risk assessment for HIV.
When Health Stations are equipped with Internet and telephone service, users can schedule medical or counseling appointments. The system also incorporates a Personal Medical Record feature, affording consumers the opportunity to compile data, store test results, and review or print for physician visits. “Each system maintains a personal record under a PIN, so it’s anonymous. Even though we pull the information back to our server and make it available to these various organizations, there’s no way of knowing who that person is. What it does is give patients the ability at the unit to keep a record for themselves, involving them more in their personal health. It also gives the organization a mountain of data about their population. They use the data to adjust programs, create new programs, and hopefully try to meet the needs of that client base better.”
In addition, outreach programs can equip the systems to dispense vouchers redeemable for food, healthcare supplies, or transportation, or directions for getting to local agencies. In addition, organizations can offer incentives, such as gift certificates, to increase attendance at clinical appointments.
Outreach programs can incorporate the Stations into their initiatives through funding provided by sources such as the CDC and Ryan White funding or via community service plans. They may just catch on. The DHHS has seen a Health Station-based initial bump in high-risk populations seeking additional information.
CSI has also made inroads into corporate wellness and healthcare intake, and is currently looking at the population of potential participants of clinical trial programs. Notes Sullivan: “Many of the drug companies have clinical trials available but it’s difficult for them to get the information into the hands of the clients. They have a real problem recruiting. So this system can be used to list all the trials and requirements, allow that person to touch the screen and select the trial he thinks he is interested in, and pick up a phone and talk to a counselor right there.”
Chael Needle wrote about tipranavir in the December 2004 issue.
January 2005
