Verizon Foundation awards $10,000 grant to The Wellness Community of the East Bay

The Wellness Community of the East Bay has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon, to fund the use of technology to identify the best community-based psychological and social support and education strategies for cancer patients and their families.

With this grant, Verizon's support for The Wellness Community over the past three years totals $50,000.

The grant will pay for implementation of ResultsPlus, a data management system designed to record patient activity within The Wellness Community's system of services and determine the most successful practices based on patients' specific circumstances.

James Bouquin, The Wellness Community executive director, said: "This partnership with Verizon has helped The Wellness Community make a positive impact in cancer patients' lives. Without the ResultPlus database management system, it was very difficult to determine what services are the most effective for specific cancers and at different stages."

Since Verizon's initial grant of $20,000 to The Wellness Community in 2007, the organization has helped more than 800 patients learn more about treatment options, how to manage their treatment and recovery, and how to become more effective partners with their medical treatment team.

Elva Lima, Verizon vice president of strategic programs, said: "Matching cancer patients to the most effective services by using the ResultsPlus database is part of Verizon's commitment to improve the delivery of health care through technology. We are proud to partner with The Wellness Community on this endeavor."