FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

100,000 Physicians Leverage Sermo Platform to Track Infectious Disease

Sermo Investigates Nation's First Physician-Driven Flu Monitoring System

Cambridge, MA, December 22, 2008 — Sermo (http://www.sermo.com), has begun investigating the ability of 100,000 physicians to track and potentially prevent infectious diseases by introducing Sermo FluMonitor™. The physician-only community is working to understand what they, acting as spotters across the country, can accomplish by collecting and aggregating clinical observations from the front lines of patient care.

Physicians on Sermo exchange insights in a collaborative online environment, where they openly discuss their medical perspectives. Flu season offers an opportunity for Sermo to test the ability of this vast group of physicians to track Influenza outbreaks across the country. Unlike any other flu tracking application, Sermo FluMonitor allows physicians to report geographically based clinical observations in real time.

"This endeavor has the potential to be an extremely useful resource in tracking disease and saving lives," said Dr. Adam Sharp, Emergency Physician and Sermo Chief Medical Officer. "Sermo's unique online community already brings physicians together to report 'bedside' data and exchange clinical insights. Until now, this type of tracking mechanism was simply not possible."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an average of 36,000 people die from Influenza in the US each year, and 200,000 people are hospitalized from complications. Of those, more than 20,000 are children under age five. The FluMonitor's instantaneous exchange of information could have broad implications, such as better preparedness in staffing and supply requirements, and more effective treatment since Influenza drugs are most successful if given in the early stages of the virus. It could also inform clinical decision-making based on local disease prevalence—avoiding unnecessary and expensive testing.

Physicians can access FluMonitor's results immediately, seeing potential outbreaks as they are reported. In contrast, the CDC currently distributes information 10-14 days after laboratory-confirmed diagnoses. "Two days is too late with Influenza because we're working with, roughly, a 40-hour window of opportunity," said Dr. Gary Munk, PhD., Director of Clinical Virology at Hackensack University Medical Center. "If you can catch it in under that, you can interfere with the virus by offering prevention methods to minimize disease spread in the area. We could not only treat Influenza, but potentially prevent it."

Prior to pursuing FluMonitor, Sermo engaged a broad range of Influenza experts—including virologists, epidemiologists, and physicians who specialize in vaccine efficacy and development—to help shape the platform's design and offer feedback on its ability to capture timely, observational, clinical data. Sermo's unique verification process ensures that FluMonitor contains information contributed exclusively by physicians across the United States.

Sermo FluMonitor can pinpoint potential outbreaks down to the zip code. Physicians across the country report cases of Influenza with details on patient age, gender, vaccination status, presenting symptoms, Rapid-Flu test results, and living situation. The aggregate of their data shows the following information on a zip code level across the FluMonitor map:

  • Number of new cases in the last seven days and the increase over the prior week
  • Number of cases confirmed with Rapid-Flu and percentage increase over the prior week
  • Age range of patients
  • Top presenting symptoms

Sermo FluMonitor platform is engineered to be versatile. Additional diseases can be added at the request of the physician community. In the future, the system can be used to track various diseases, including Tuberculosis, Staphylococcus, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, providing a powerful tool in tracking and fighting rapidly spreading infectious diseases.

About Sermo
Sermo is where 100,000 US physicians collaborate on difficult cases, share clinical observations and work together to achieve far more than they could individually. Sermo's technology harnesses this collective insight for healthcare institutions, financial services firms and government agencies. This creates a two-sided marketplace for information exchange. Physicians on Sermo gain a unified voice that allows them to influence healthcare policy. Sermo's clients gain direct access to a fresh stream of actionable information on emerging medical trends—to physicians on the frontlines who put drugs, devices and treatments to the test every day. For more information, visit http://www.sermo.com.

Press Contact:
Jennifer Brown
Sermo, Inc.
P:617-500-2393
E: jbrown@sermo.com

Claire Spina-Russell
for Sermo, Inc
P:781 842 3381
E: sermo@perkettpr.com