Global Knowledge Exchange Network (GKEN) to Hold Leadership Conference in Guatemala

AUSTIN, Texas--(Business Wire)--
The Global Knowledge Exchange Network (GKEN) will host its semi-annual
conference today through April 3 with health executives, practitioners and
policy experts from around the globe to explore and identify "better and best"
practices in the healthcare field. The invitational conference, to be held in
Antigua, Guatemala, is in keeping with GKEN's mission to search the globe for
replicable practices to improve health and the quality of healthcare around the
world.

The spring 2009 conference will focus on identifying better and best practices
to help healthcare systems and individual providers better manage and control
chronic disease, secure better health outcomes, and identify replicable and
meaningful health promotion programs and practices that are yielding positive
results. In Antigua, the participants will consider more than 50 better practice
summaries and assess the appropriateness of their content. The overarching
objective for the Antigua meeting is to develop a formal protocol that GKEN will
use to determine better practices in multiple content areas and how to promote
those practices globally in a variety of cultural and economic environments.

"GKEN, founded in the fall of 2007 through a generous grant from the CIGNA
Foundation, convened with the recognition that healthcare, like the economy, is
global. Additionally, medical research, the management and implementation of new
medical technologies and drug therapies, and new ways of addressing problems,
are taking place around the globe but there are few resources committed to
bringing the new innovations and practices to the attention of the entire global
healthcare community," explained Jon Comola, CEO. "GKEN is attempting to meet
that daunting challenge and serve as a catalyst for the global exchange of
valuable healthcare information in real time. The concept is straight forward:
advancing information to knowledge, then to action!"

Since its founding, GKEN has expanded its participation, conducted a fall 2008
meeting at Oxford University where its participants issued the Merton
Declaration publicly acknowledging their commitment to better dissemination of
sound healthcare practices utilized by developed and developing nations all over
the world (see Merton Declaration at www.GKEN.org.)

In recent months, GKEN delegates have traveled the healthcare universe, from
Dubai to Copenhagen and Berlin, at the invitation of the Joint Commission
International. GKEN is developing collaborations with the Joint Commission
International, the Oxford Alliance, and Vanderbilt University. GKEN`s work will
be introduced to the attendees of the World Health Congress in Washington, D.C.
later this month as H. Edward Hanway, Chairman and CEO of CIGNA, discusses
GKEN`s mission.

A host of new industry leaders have expressed their interest in and support for
the work of GKEN, including the American Cancer Society, American Medical Group
Association, Kaiser Permanente Public Policy Institute, Quest Diagnostics, the
Hong Kong Hospital Authority, the National Retail Federation, the National
League of Nursing, Premier, Inc., Alliant International University, Whirlpool,
Dow Chemical, and the National Association of Health Underwriters.

The GKEN website, www.GKEN.org, was launched recently with the intention of
promoting a living international exchange. The global community site organizes
information in an interactive friendly format with discussion forums, wiki's and
ASK GKEN tabs. All the case studies will be published on the site and made
publicly available along with research, footnotes and topical environmental
scans.

The Global Knowledge Exchange Network GKEN) is a not for profit affiliate of the
Wye River Group on Health (WRGH), is a 501-c-3 corporation, that was created
through a generous unrestricted three year grant from the CIGNA Foundation. The
CIGNA Foundation's grant is in keeping with CIGNA's commitment to help shape the
future of affordable, quality healthcare. Additional information about GKEN and
its mission can be found at its website, www.GKEN.com.

CIGNA
Contact:
Marty Davis
martis_davis@comcast.net

Copyright Business Wire 2009