Welch Allyn, a leading global provider of frontline medical
products and solutions, today announced it has donated 50 Spot Vital Signs®
devices to the American Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) Connectional Health
Commission’s program, “Manage BP with AMECHealth.” The program is designed to
help raise awareness of hypertension and fight the disease in the African
American community. The program uses www.amechealth.org
as a wellness portal to create an online/offline strategy dedicated to
providing culturally appropriate hypertension awareness, prevention, screening
and lifestyle management tools and information. The initiative is also focused
on improving health literacy and health outcomes.
“AMECHealth has a unique opportunity to combat the
disparities in health and healthcare that have negatively impacted racial and
ethnic minorities for many decades,” said David Allyn, director of corporate
social responsibility at Welch Allyn. “We are pleased to help them in their
mission to raise awareness about heart disease and hypertension. Welch Allyn
Spot Vital Signs is a fully automated, multiparameter device that allows
clinicians to effectively spot check patients in ambulatory and acute care settings,
and can be easily configured for efficient, safe and accurate operation by
providers with varying levels of training and sophistication.”
The pilot portion of the program includes 10 churches in the
New York City
metro area who serve more than 20,000 congregants and is designed to be the
front end of a large-scale program which will expand to include all 4,000 AME
churches across the country.
“Health-related tools, information and resources that are
not culturally-specific oftentimes are misinterpreted and misunderstood,” said
Miriam Burnett, medical director at AMEC Connectional (Worldwide) Health
Commission. “Our goal is to create an environment that engages, educates and
activates our targeted communities about the positive effects of properly monitoring
and preventing hypertension. We are honored to partner with Welch Allyn to help
us make a difference in the lives of so many individuals in the African
American community who to some degree are affected by hypertension.”
About Welch Allyn
Founded in 1915 and headquartered in Skaneateles Falls,
NY (USA), Welch Allyn is a leading
global provider of medical diagnostic equipment and a complete range of digital
and connected solutions. With 2,750 employees working in 26 different
countries, Welch Allyn is a family-owned business that specializes in helping
doctors, nurses, and other frontline practitioners across the globe provide the
best patient care by developing innovative products, breakthrough technologies,
and cutting-edge solutions that help them see more patients, detect more
conditions, and improve more lives. More information about Welch Allyn and its
complete line of connected products and solutions may be found at www.welchallyn.com.
About AMEC Connectional Health Commission The Connectional
Health Commission serves, among other tasks, to help the denomination
understand health as an integral part of the faith of the Christian Church, to
make the denomination a healing faith community and to promote the health concerns
of its members. One of the initiatives of the commission is the establishment
of an interactive website that will allow not only health directors, but the
AMEC membership at-large to access health information, complete reports and
request assistance. Visit www.amechealth.org
for more information.
