DAYTONA BEACH, FL--(Marketwired - Jun 2, 2016) - Quture International, Inc. (
This agreement is extraordinarily significant to Quture for several reasons. First, Quture has sought proven experts in human factors technology to supplement its QualOptima product and services since 2009. Scott Shappell, Ph.D., and Douglas Wiegmann, Ph.D., are the renown pioneer developers of HFACS for aviation safety, working with the FAA and internationally. Drs. Wiegmann and Shappell developed HFACS in the 1980's and 90's, when aviation accident investigations needed a solution, just as healthcare now urgently needs their expertise. During the past few years, these experts have modified their system for patient safety in healthcare. Quture will begin working with them at their next HFACS training session in Daytona on June 7th and has already begun development of the HFACS software technology.
Preventable medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America. A study by patient safety experts at Johns Hopkins University Medical School calculated that 251,454 patients die every year from medical errors. That's 689 preventable deaths per day, 29 every hour of every day. This rate of preventable medical errors is the equivalent of 604 crashes of 747 airplanes every year with all 416 passengers killed. That rate is more than one such 747 crash -- every day of every year. And the evidence is that the crisis is not improving.
The tragic loss of life and devastation of loved ones is difficult to comprehend, and the impact on physicians and nurses working in healthcare is rarely considered. The financial and economic consequences, and the burden on our legal system, are colossal. Medical errors cost the U.S. economy $19.5 billion conservatively, based on a study in 2008 by Milliman and sponsored by the Society of Actuaries Health Section. Of this amount, the vast majority (about 87% or $17 billion) was a direct increase in the medical costs of providing inpatient, outpatient, and prescription drug services to individuals who are affected by medical errors.
A more recent study published in the Journal of Healthcare Finance calculates a staggering average of $825,000,000 per year from preventable medical errors, almost $1 trillion. The different method of measurement applied quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) to get a more complete accounting of the economic affect when a person dies. This method includes measuring the cost of lost human potential and contributions, making the overall cost from errors considerably higher than shown in previous research.
The epidemiology, risks, and outcomes of preventable medical errors in healthcare have been extensively studied but remain poorly understood. Even more important, the solutions essential to eliminate these errors, often called "adverse events," are yet to be accomplished. Studies estimate that $1.06 billion per year is spent on risk management in hospitals, while administrative costs of medical malpractice insurance companies cost $3.04 billion per year. The most conservative formula for calculating the market for HFACS software products is $4.01 billion, without any consideration of other more extensive QualOptima product market.
"We modified our Human Factors Analysis Classification System for use in healthcare, based on our experiences and research in hospitals, to solve 4 basic deficiencies in existing processes and systems," said Douglas Wiegmann, Ph.D., one of the two principals in HFACS, Inc. "We believe our work with Quture to market the software technology of our system will exponentially improve our ability to work with current and prospective healthcare users of our analysis and classification system to improve patient safety and outcomes."
Second, Quture is preparing to license and install its QualOptima Analytics Informatics Platform as "platform-as-a-service" (PaaS) licenses. HFACS will supplement the QualOptima system for classification, including HFACS nanocodes, to propel its adoption in the United States and internationally. Quture will market, install, and support the HFACS software technology as a stand-alone system for risk management in healthcare, as well as embed with its existing technology in QualOptma version 1.3.
"HFACS is excited to collaborate with Quture for the development of our software," said Scott Shappell, Ph.D., the other principal in HFACS, Inc. "We believe Quture is uniquely qualified, recognizing its success to date programmed into their technology for analytics and the software product development they have already accomplished. Our combined expertise, now being coded by Quture into software, demonstrates our joint commitment to diagnose the causes of medical errors, but equally important, to implement methods to solve them. In our system, we call that HFIX. Diagnosis, followed by intelligent root cause analysis, will lead to the treatments of the urgent needs of healthcare, the patients and families they are devoted to serve, and the payers for optimal patient outcomes."
Third, Quture is now introducing its products offerings to hospitals and physician practices, as well as healthcare insurers, to integrate the different functions of quality management, risk management and credentialing in the QualOptima unified informatics technology system on the common database for these disparate "silos" of information. HFACS is the classification system that QualOptima will embed for "Value Data Centers," soon to be announced by Quture. In addition to healthcare providers and insurers, Quture intends to immediately market QualOptima with HFACS to medical malpractice insurance companies and to hospital system self-insured trusts. Quture has previewed its intention to market to the total spectrum of customer segments.
"One of the reasons healthcare, including medical errors, is such a difficult market is due to the complexity of the system," said Landon Feazell, Chairman and CEO of Quture. "What is good for one customer may negatively impact another customer. Quture has been engaged in medical error solutions for over 40 years. We have analyzed these urgent needs in hundreds of hospitals by thousands of physicians and clinicians to hundreds of thousands if not millions of patients. Just as Drs. Shappell and Wiegmann have impacted aviation safety, their expertise and reputations are proven in the equally complex aviation industry."
Quture's last press release for its Go to Market Plan now includes valuable HFACS to expand upon customer segments, as anticipated. Q's extensive development of the QualOptima Connectivity & Analytics System for customer segments and value propositions, including embedded intellectual property, has resulted in potential sale of the full transformational software system for healthcare enterprise management in Version 2.0 at intended reference sites.
"Healthcare information technology has not traditionally invested in quality and risk management technologies," added Feazell. "When they did, it was in products that use billing codes that do not work for identifying, much less providing information, root causes and potential solutions to adverse patient outcomes. These impacts have limited universal adoption of the QualOptima solution to date. However, the extent of the financial consequences and inexcusable disregard for patient safety are rapidly changing the existing failure to adopt electronic technology solutions. We agree with a financial expert's conclusion that 'healthcare leaders and professionals are focusing on quality and patient safety in ways they never have before because the economics of quality have changed substantially.' Quture believes that the "Quality-Value Proposition" we proposed in 2003 is finally achievable."
Healthcare payers and the government now embrace the reality that quality care is less expensive care. When medical care is better, more efficient, and more effective, when wide variation is recognized and changed, care is less wasteful. Patients urgently need the right care, at the right time, in the right setting, by the right provider, at the right cost -- every time. Quture has focused on eliminating overuse, underuse and misuse of medical care for over 40 years, even before healthcare recognized those categories.
Improving healthcare and patient safety means far fewer patients are harmed or killed, financial and economic consequences are reduced and stabilized. Wide variations in suboptimal quality is costing payers and society so extensively that the American economy is absolutely at risk. Quture's collaboration with HFACS is the complete free-enterprise solution to the medical errors epidemic.
About Quture International, Inc.
Quture International (
As the free enterprise solution to improving health and healthcare while reducing costs, Quture is positioned through its disruptive technology to become the foremost global provider of value-based clinical intelligence and knowledge solutions. Q is a Nevada corporation based in Daytona Beach, Florida, and trades on the OTC exchange under the symbol "QUTR."
Forward Looking Statements: This release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements concerning our business and possible or assumed future results of operations. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements for many reasons including: our ability to continue as a going concern, adverse economic changes affecting markets we serve; competition in our markets and industry segments; our timing and the profitability of entering new markets; greater than expected costs, customer acceptance of our products or difficulties related to our integration of the businesses we may acquire; and other risks and uncertainties as may be detailed from time to time in our public announcements and SEC filings. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, they relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made, and our future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements may not meet these expectations. We do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this document to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law. There is no assurance that a definitive agreement will be completed.
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Quture International, Inc.
geoffrey@quture.com