~Educational Program Will Help Clinicians Improve Outcomes and Efficiency with Telemonitoring; CE Credits for Nurses~

BEARSVILLE, NY and BALTIMORE, MD, October 9, 2002 - In a first for home telemonitoring, LifeLink Monitoring Corporation, in partnership with the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing (IJHN) and Accelera, Inc., has launched phase one of a multi-part educational program to help health care organizations successfully integrate home telemonitoring into their current work flow. The initiative marks the first time a home telemonitoring company and major medical institution have partnered to provide telemonitoring education to the health care industry.

This initial phase takes the form of a workbook for home care organizations and gives an overview of telemonitoring and instructs nurses in how to assess objective data, such as blood pressure readings, and subjective data, such as patient-reported symptoms, for better clinical decision-making. This educational program and future editions will offer continuing education (CE) contact hours to participating nurses through the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing. An executive summary of this workbook will be available to attendees of the National Association for Home Care (NAHC) annual meeting in Salt Lake City later this month.

"We believe this program will help our customers maximize the benefits our telemonitoring services offer them and their patients," said Art Avedisian, CEO of LifeLink Monitoring. "Johns Hopkins and LifeLink Monitoring share a common vision of providing educational tools to clinicians that result in better patient care and improved health outcomes. We plan to continue working together to offer additional educational programs that will enhance the outcomes of our telemonitoring services."

The industry's only end-to-end home telemonitoring service, LifeLink Monitoring allows patients to easily monitor their own vital signs, such as weight, blood pressure and hemoglobin A1c, and report those readings as well as symptom information to their clinicians on a daily basis. By receiving a steady stream of patient data, doctors and nurses are better able to track patients' progress and provide more timely intervention-without having to also manage all the non-clinical aspects of the telemonitoring such as the equipment, patient education and technical troubleshooting, as other telemonitoring companies require.

The initial LifeLink Monitoring-Johns Hopkins educational program will help nurses understand and interpret patient data to determine when phone intervention or home visits are most appropriate. This may reduce unnecessary calls or home visits, ultimately resulting in improved patient outcomes and reduced health care costs, according to an IJHN spokesperson.

"Home telemonitoring has great potential to enhance home health care, but it requires nurses to approach the patient differently," said Kathleen Sabatier, IJHN director. "That's why we're so pleased to be working with LifeLink Monitoring. They've had the foresight to address the need for nursing education to make sure the maximum benefits of home telemonitoring are realized."

A leader in designing and delivering continuing education for practicing nurses, The Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing is accredited as a provider of continuing education in nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

An executive summary of the workbook will be available in the LifeLink Monitoring booth (#1224) at the NAHC meeting, Salt Lake City, October 27-29. A copy may also be obtained by contacting LifeLink Monitoring at 888-595-8080 ext. 254.

About LifeLink Monitoring Corporation
LifeLink Monitoring is a leading provider of turnkey home telemonitoring services to health care organizations. The company's services can be used by anyone responsible for the care of patients with chronic conditions, either in a primary care setting or a formal disease management program. LifeLink Monitoring provides telemonitoring services to home health organizations, disease management companies, managed care organizations, integrated delivery systems and self-insured employers. The company was recently selected to provide telemonitoring services for three major hypertension studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Upstate New York, LifeLink Monitoring provides a broad and expanding range of telemonitoring services, including blood pressure, heart rate, weight, blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c, patient-supplied symptom information, and patient compliance reminders. All services are provided on a "pay-as-you-go" basis, eliminating the large, upfront expenditures required by most telemonitoring equipment vendors. More information about LifeLink Monitoring can be found at www.llmi.com or by calling 1-888-595-8080 ext. 254.

About the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing
Formed in 1995, The Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing is an innovative partnership between the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Nursing. The overall mission of The Institute is to share the innovations in practice, science and scholarship of Johns Hopkins Nursing with other health care professionals locally, nationally, and worldwide. The Institute achieves this through continuing education programs, consultation and developing and marketing patient care products conceived by Johns Hopkins nurses.

About Accelera, Inc.
Accelera, Inc. designs, develops, and delivers learning programs for pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology, professional association, and educational institution clients. The Company has comprehensive media delivery expertise covering print, CD-ROM, videotape, audiotape, slides, Internet, corporate Intranets, and group-facilitated learning. Founded through the merger of LearnWare International Corporation and Multimedia Software, Inc., Accelera is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and is a licensee of The Johns Hopkins University. Accelera's Mission is to be the preferred provider of learning solutions that accelerate the global adoption of advanced medical products.

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