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Network also launches AFib support group and a smartphone app to help people with AFib manage their condition


Network also launches AFib support group and a smartphone app to help people with AFib manage their condition

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Check out the UNC AFib Care Network website at: www.unchealthcare.org/a-fib-care-network/
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A screen shot from the UNC AFib Assistant app.

Media Contact: Tom Hughes, 984-974-1151,

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – May 30, 2018 – The UNC AFib Care Network has launched a new clinic that coordinates all of the services needed by patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib) in one convenient location.

The new AFib Integrated Care Clinic is now open and seeing patients at 300 Meadowmont Village Circle in Chapel Hill.

“Our new AFib Integrated Care Clinic fills a critical need for AFib patients by helping them build AFib self-management skills and prevent AFib progression by addressing associated comorbidities such as obesity, hypertension, sleep apnea and anxiety. Our goal in this clinic is to help patients learn to live a full life unburdened by AFib,” said Anil Gehi, MD, director of the UNC AFib Care Network.

In addition to the new clinic, the AFib Care Network has created an AFib Support Group that meets quarterly. The network has also launched a smartphone app to help patients with AFib manage their condition.

The smartphone app, which was developed in collaboration with Durham-based Pattern Health, is called “UNC AFib Assistant – powered by Pattern Health.”

“Our whole focus at Pattern Health is to help patients better adhere to their care plan while accelerating the pace of innovation in health care,” says Ed Barber, CEO of Pattern Health. “We are excited to be working with Dr. Gehi and the UNC Health Care team on their truly innovative approach to helping patients understand and better manage AFib. UNC Health Care and Dr. Gehi’s focus on empowering patients through proper education, a simplified approach for episode tracking, and behavior change will make it easier for people to take control of their AFib condition while reducing unnecessary burden on the health system.”

These developments were made possible, in part, by a three-year, $1.7 million grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to further innovate an AFib care model, launched by Gehi in 2015, that reduced hospitalizations for patients with AFib presenting in the emergency room by more than 30 percentage points in its first year.

For more information on AFib and the UNC AFib Integrated Care Clinic, visit the UNC Health Care website at: https://www.unchealthcare.org/a-fib-care-network/. Providers can make a referral to the UNC AFib Integrated Care Clinic in Meadowmont by calling 984-974-2900 (option #1).

The next AFib Patient Support Group will meet on Saturday, June 9. To RSVP, please call (984) 974-4743.

About UNC School of Medicine
The UNC School of Medicine (SOM) is the state’s largest medical school graduating approximately 180 new physicians each year. It is consistently ranked among the top medical schools in the US and is among the most well funded for its research efforts. More than half of the school’s 1,700 faculty members served as principal investigators on active research awards in 2016. Two UNC SOM faculty members have earned Nobel Prize awards.

About Pattern Health
Pattern Health works with leading healthcare systems, providers and research institutions to help them empower patients to improve adherence. Pattern Health’s HIPAA compliant platform enables clinicians and researchers to quickly develop and deploy comprehensive and interactive connected care programs that improve patient education, simplify biometric tracking, and utilize proven behavioral interventions to help people to better pattern their behavior to match their prescribed care plan. Over 85 healthcare sites nationwide and 16k monthly active users (MAU’s) are using Pattern to help people manage a diverse set of health conditions, including Hypertension, AFib, Glaucoma, HIV and many others.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committed to improving the health outcomes of populations disproportionately affected by serious diseases by strengthening healthcare worker capacity, integrating medical care and community-based supportive services, and addressing unmet medical need. The Foundation engages partners to develop, execute, evaluate and promote innovative programs to help patients with lung cancer and removing barriers to accessing care in the United States, HIV and comorbid diseases such as cervical and breast cancers and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa, hepatitis B and C in China and India and veterans’ mental health and well-being in the U.S.

For more information about the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, please visit www.bms.com/foundation or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.