Disease management: has it a future?

doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7234.530

BMJ 2000;320:530 ( 26 February )

Editorials

Disease management: has it a future?

It has a compelling logic, but needs to be tested in practice

Education and debate pp 563 , 566

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Disease management, often known as integrated care or care pathways, has wide appeal for health care reformers keen to containcosts and improve outcomes. ¹ ² Integrated care is a key plankin the government's NHS modernisation programme.³ It is alsoparticularly relevant to chronicillness.

Disease management commands wide international support as the optimal approach to planning and delivering health care.⁴It is welcomed as a structured systems response to a set of problemsthat are evident to some degree in all health services. Theseinclude uncoordinated arrangements for delivering care, a biastowards acute treatment, a neglect of preventive care, and inappropriatetreatment. The theory behind disease management is that resourcescan be used more effectively if the patient becomes the pivotaround which health care is organised.⁵ In place of functionaldivisions, such as those between primary care and hospitals orbetween different clinical specialties, the divisions are between. . . [Full text of this article]

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