BMC licenses tool to lower hospital readmission rates

A Boston program created to cut down on patients' return trips to the hospital has been licensed to a California health care software company for further development. Reducing hospital readmissions is a focus of the Obama adminsitration's efforts to cut costs as part of overhauling the nation's health care system.

Project RED, which stands for Re-Engineered Discharge, gives patients personalized information about their conditions, medications, and upcoming appointments, followed by a call from a pharmacist to check on medications. It was developed by researchers at Boston Medical Center, Northeastern University, and MIT. Boston University’s Technology Development Office struck an exclusive licensing deal with Engineered Care Inc. of San Francisco. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Dr. Brian Jack of Boston Medical Center led a three-year randomized control trial at Boston Medical Center that showed Project RED reduced hospital readmissions by 30 percent and costs by more than 33 percent, according to an article published last year (second item) in the Annals of Internal Medicine. That work was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.