Health Dialog and the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation (the Foundation) today announced that they will end their exclusive commercial relationship regarding the sale of Shared Decision Making aids, effective January 1, 2014. Health Dialog and the Foundation will continue to work together as strategic partners, but both parties will now have a new opportunity to bring new Shared Decision Making products to market.

The existing 39 decision aids which were developed by Health Dialog in collaboration with the Foundation will remain the property of Health Dialog and be exclusively available to employers, payors, providers and others through Health Dialog. Going forward, the Foundation will have access to these existing decision aids for their continued research to support sustainable models of shared decision making. The Foundation's demonstration site project, one of its longest running research activities, provides a unique opportunity to study real world implementation of shared decision making. As a result of this new relationship, Health Dialog and the Foundation will be able to separately bring new decision aids and other products they develop independently to the market.

"We value our relationship with the Foundation and we will continue to work together to ensure Shared Decision Making remains a priority in today's healthcare market," said Robert Mandel, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Health Dialog. "Our collaborative work over the past sixteen years has made a positive impact on millions of lives and we will remain committed, along with the Foundation, to putting the best decision aids in the hands of the people we engage."

Health Dialog's award-winning suite of patient decision aids developed in collaboration with the Foundation cover a broad range of topics and are available online, as a booklet and in DVD format. The company's decision aids are currently available to more than 13 million individuals and are distributed as part of Health Dialog's broader Population Health Solutions, which include analytics to find the right people in a population, engagement tools and techniques to catch their attention, and expert health coaches to empower their choices and change their behavior.

"Our longstanding relationship with Health Dialog has helped spread the concept and practice of shared decision making supported by patient decision aids to many people," said Michael Barry, MD, President of the Foundation. "We look forward to continuing collaborations with Health Dialog as we both work more independently to ensure health care decisions are more and more routinely made with the active participation of well informed people."

Health Dialog supports the delivery of high quality, affordable health care where patients are involved and informed in their treatment options. The company's programs, anchored by coaching and analytics, include chronic condition support, lifestyle management, and Shared Decision Making for treatment decision support that improve quality and patient satisfaction while reducing costs.

About the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation:
The Informed Medical Decisions Foundation (previously known as the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making) has been working for over two decades to advance evidence-based shared decision making through research, policy, clinical models and patient decision support. The Foundation believes that the only way to ensure high quality medical decisions are made is for a fully informed patient to participate in a shared decision making process with his or her health care provider. The Foundation is a Boston-based organization with a network of medical editors and clinical advisors from some of the most prestigious medical institutions in the world. For more information, visit www.informedmedicaldecisions.org.

About Health Dialog Services Corporation:
Health Dialog Services Corporation is a leading provider of healthcare analytics and decision support. The firm is a private, wholly-owned subsidiary of Bupa, a global provider of healthcare services. Health Dialog helps employers, payers, and providers improve healthcare quality while reducing overall costs. Company offerings include health coaching for medical decisions, chronic conditions, and wellness; population analytic solutions; and consulting services. Health Dialog helps individuals participate in their own healthcare decisions, develop more effective relationships with their physicians, and live longer, healthier, happier lives. For more information, visit www.healthdialog.com.

Health Dialog
Charlotte McCormack, 617-406-5256
cmccormack@healthdialog.com
or
Informed Medical Decisions Foundation
Steph Synoracki, 617-367-2000
ssynoracki@imdfoundation.org
or
Informed Medical Decisions Foundation
Pepper McCormick, 617-367-2000
pmccormick@imdfoundation.org