KENILWORTH, N.J. & CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC), a leading healthcare improvement company, have expanded their efforts to co-develop and test solutions to help improve patient care and wellness while lowering healthcare spending.

In 2016, Merck and Premier agreed to collaborate to develop and assess solutions that promote wellness and better care for specific groups of at-risk patients across the continuum. The organizations have now launched two projects under this collaboration model. One is a preventive care model that seeks to improve adolescent and adult vaccination rates. The other is a chronic disease model that includes a new focus on type 2 diabetes patients at risk of hypoglycemia, as well as osteoporosis identification and treatment (as announced in 2016).

“Our expanded collaboration allows us to more effectively support health systems and clinicians that are evolving from volume to value-based models, but lack adequate prevention and wellness solutions,” said Mimi Huizinga, MD, chief health information officer at Premier. “We’ve been working with Merck to design data-driven interventions for some of the top population health challenges facing our country, and we’re eager to start testing them in the real world.”

The vaccination and chronic care models combine the improvement expertise and technical capabilities of Premier with Merck’s education and therapeutic area expertise. The companies are now developing plans with interested health systems to test these models on the frontline, in real-world settings.

Vaccination Rates

Immunization is considered one of the most important public health achievements of the last century, but vaccination rates among adults and adolescents remain low in the U.S. The vaccination solution will calculate vaccination rates, and provide performance reports and education to help providers increase vaccination levels among adults and adolescents.

“Vaccination administration happens across the continuum of care, which can create challenges for healthcare providers to track patient progress. The ability to use Premier’s analytics platform allows for aggregation of data from multiple care sites so that overall performance can be monitored,” said Lisa French, associate vice president, strategy and commercial model innovation, Merck.

Dr. Huizinga added, “Combining this care management technology with educational resources from Merck will help ensure that adult and adolescent vaccines reach more individuals who need them.”

Chronic Care

The chronic care solution currently targets two disease areas, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes. It is estimated that nearly 30 million people are living with diabetes in the U.S., and many require medical intervention to treat hypoglycemia every year. Additionally, there are approximately 10 million Americans with osteoporosis, which is estimated to be responsible for two million broken bones and $19 billion in U.S. healthcare costs each year.

Merck and Premier will develop core sets of measures for patients at-risk for these conditions across multiple sites of care. In both cases, they will use a cloud-based application to support guideline-based care. For example, the hypoglycemia application will collect information from patients regarding their hypoglycemia symptoms to improve the care team’s understanding of the patient’s current state with the goal of improving the overall management of their type 2 diabetes.

The vaccination and chronic care model solutions will be tested within volunteer Premier member health systems. Merck and Premier welcome interested healthcare organizations to inquire about participation.

“Chronic diseases account for the vast majority of healthcare costs in the U.S. and vaccination rates for adults and adolescents are low, leaving millions of Americans unprotected from preventable diseases,” said French. “Developing prevention programs and other interventions that health systems can implement as part of their population health management strategies can go a long way toward helping improve patient care and wellness.”

The financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

About Merck

For more than a century, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world - including cancer, cardio-metabolic diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

About Premier Inc.

Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,750 U.S. hospitals and more than 130,000 other provider organizations. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com.