american thrombosis & hemostasis network

Funding will Support Initial Start-up to Establish and Grow the Newly Formed Non-Profit

Riverwoods, ILL. -- The American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network (ATHN) announced today that Novo Nordisk will provide start-up funding through a significant unrestricted grant over the course of five years to help establish and grow the organizational leadership and operational infrastructure of the network. Founded in July 2006, ATHN provides stewardship of a secure national database, which will be used to support clinical outcomes analysis, research, advocacy and public health reporting in the thrombosis and hemostasis community.

“Novo Nordisk has a steadfast dedication to social responsibility and we are honored by this investment in ATHN’s future,” said Diane Aschman, President and CEO of ATHN. “This unrestricted grant will allow us to truly begin defining and standardizing a secure, national database, and the processes surrounding it, to benefit patients and providers throughout our community.”

In a joint effort with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Blood Disorders, ATHN will create a formal coalition with the 140 federally funded hemophilia treatment centers (HTCs) across the U.S. with the goal to conserve resources through use of a common information infrastructure so precious data will no longer be at risk for loss or fragmentation.

ATHN will facilitate the reuse of common data elements thereby reducing the need to collect the same data repeatedly for different purposes using different formats. At the local level, patients and providers will benefit from having access to more structured individual and aggregate patient data as needed to support the continuum of care.

“We are proud to support ATHN with their innovative work which will lead to better insight into treatments for people with hemophilia,” said Martin Soeters, president of Novo Nordisk. “As part of our social responsibility, Novo Nordisk is committed to addressing the significant need for improving hemophilia care and we are confident that the ATHN clinical database will help answer the many questions that exist about bleeding and thrombosis conditions and care.”

Under the agreement Novo Nordisk will not receive preferential access to the database developed or the services provided by ATHN. An open and transparent process for requesting access to data will be established via ATHN’s Privacy and Data Security Committee currently in the formative stage. ATHN envisions the data being useful for a wide range of issues including epidemiological, clinical, advocacy, and patient safety. No organization will have preferred access to the data.

The American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network (ATHN) is a non-profit corporation founded in July 2006. Dedicated to advancing and improving the care of individuals affected by bleeding and blood clotting disorders, ATHN will provide stewardship of a secure national database, adherent to all privacy guidelines, which will be used to support clinical outcomes analysis, research, advocacy, and public health reporting. ATHN will foster collaboration with patients, providers, suppliers, government agencies and non profit organizations in the thrombosis and hemostasis community.

ATHN is coming soon to the World Wide Web at http://www.athn.org.
For global information, visit novonordisk.com; for United States information, visit novonordisk-us.com.

ATHN MEDIA CONTACT:

Kathleen Van Gorden
KVG Communications
401-480-1840
kathleenv@kvgcom.com