Background: Over 180 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus worldwide, with this number expected to more than double by 2030. Due to the increasing mortality and morbidity associated with this epidemic, the improved primary-care management of diabetes during routine office...

Over the past decade, employee disease management (DM) programs have evolved and expanded in response to the continued economic burden of chronic diseases and other health conditions on companies in the US and globally. As they have developed, these programs have increasingly become integrated...

For many years, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been under-recognized and stigmatized. Misconceptions about this disease have led to under-treatment and under-funding, resulting in an increase in the burden of COPD. In 2005, the National Emphysema/COPD Association published the...

Background and objectives: Diabetes mellitus is a growing medical and economic burden that requires ongoing vigilant screening and effective management to prevent the development of serious and costly complications. In 2002, the Genesys Physician-Health Organization (PHO) implemented a quality...

Disease management has gained popularity as a way to improve health status and control of chronic illness through the use of risk stratification, targeted nurse outreach, telephonic nurse advice, and evidence-based guidelines in managing illness. Disease management programs have been...

Background: With over 4 million births annually in the US, pregnancy is a high-volume and high-cost condition for both public and private payers. Although pregnancy is generally considered to be a time of wellness, certain maternal habits and medical conditions place a pregnancy at risk of...

Pay-for-performance schemes share the common approach of offering financial incentives to healthcare providers for achieving specified performance targets. Such schemes are becoming increasingly popular with healthcare policy makers and funders worldwide, despite a relative lack of evidence on...

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases of adults and children in industrialized countries, and has had a marked increase in prevalence over the past 25 years. Asthma disproportionately affects under-represented minority populations, with African Americans and (some) Hispanics having...

A variety of program evaluation designs are available to assess the impact of disease or care management programs, which can make it difficult to compare outcomes of different interventions. The need to compare programs has resulted in consideration of standardizing evaluations of disease...

The rapid expansion of disease management continues. A multitude of stakeholders and marketplaces are now involved in providing cost-effective quality healthcare for individuals and populations. To help you keep up to date with the very latest developments in disease management, this section of...