The increased incidence of chronic diseases and conditions presents a huge challenge to worldwide. Chronic diseases are those that can only be controlled and not, at present, cured. They include diabetes, asthma, arthritis, heart Failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia and a range of disabling neurological conditions.
Living with a chronic disease has a significant impact on a person’s quality of life and on their family. The incidence of such diseases increases with age. Many older people are living with more than one chronic condition and this means that they face particular challenges, both medical and social.
For the CGSL, good chronic disease management is about making the right things easier to do. Getting this right will not only improve things for these patients but will also free up resources to improve services across the society.
Present day clinical information systems in hospitals and in general practice are not yet adequate for the challenges of delivering effective and evidence-based healthcare, in which teams of clinicians on different sites are working in partnership and collaboratively with patients.
Technology may enable a new concept of service as illustrated in the lower triangle, aiming to correct this balance by creating a more patient and information-centered view of healthcare. |
Evolution from the traditional hospital-centered view towards a patient centered and distributed view of healthcare services, supported by information technology
Our approach, by providing a means to deliver near-patient clinical management services, fits well with this new perspective of “information age healthcare”. It has the potential to improve patient care and to reduce healthcare |
