A World Bank report warns that poor countries are catching up with wealthier nations in terms of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, and that by 2015, these chronic illnesses will be the leading cause of death in developing countries. The report calls for actions to slow down the trend, and to prepare for subsequent heavy demand on health care budgets. (1)
These figures do not include communicable diseases that have a similar health system and socio-economic development impact, such as HIV/AIDS, which can also benefit from innovative Chronic care Policy and interventions recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). (2)
- Chronic conditions represent 70% of costs for health systems
- the longer duration of chronic disease makes the financial costs heavier than in the case of acute illnesses, which can cause households to slip below the poverty line
- low- and middle-income countries also need to adapt their health systems to cope with the growing numbers of elderly people who will require long-term care and request expensive treatment. In Indonesia, for example, private healthcare spending is projected to more than double by 2020, compared to 2005, as its elderly population grows in size, and needs treatment for chronic diseases.
- 70-80% of people with chronic illnesses can self-manage their condition, so as to maintain their socio-economic activities and quality of life, if they are provided with appropriate education and supportive interventions by health professionals.
- to ensure successful implementation, it is necessary to educate primary healthcare professionals in Self-Management Support (SMS), ("from expert health professional to expert patient"), so that these professionals can then provide evidence-based and quality assured SMS interventions to their patients and family caregivers.
Enabling technologies (ICT) can provide greater outreach, cost containment and effective service delivery
- the use of ICT (telecommunications + IT + Internet) can extend outreach, reduce costs and improve standards of quality, efficiency and effectiveness, for Chronic illness prevention and care through Self-Management Support interventions to middle- and low-income countries, by enabling international exchange of best practice, especially through the application of methodologies such as the Virtual Breakthrough Series, developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (USA).
- this represents a significant business development opportunity in emerging markets for private sector ICT companies, including mobile telephone operators and handset manufactures, Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Internet Application Service Providers (ASP).
On June 3, at the 2nd Annual Chronic Care Congress, Dr Manuel Serrano , GA-SMS
Coordinator, will present how ICT applications can be used to enable prevention and self-management for Chronic illnesses.The GA-SMS strategy is to improve health service performance at the primary care level, in complement to existing top-down approaches, by empowering front-line health care providers, patients and family caregivers, with ICT enabled education and tools for improving self-management support.
These innovative and evidence-based tools have been developed by world renowned institutions; such as: the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation and Stanford University).
Outreach into local communities will be channeled through existing ubiquitous ICT platforms, which in the case of many developing countries, is predominantly the mobile phone. We therefore envisage partnerships with national mobile telecommunications operators, as well as handset manufacturers and other ICT industry stakeholders.
Dr. Serrano is also the President of the Education, Health, and Society Foundation (EHSF) in Spain, as well as Director of the Expert Patient Programme in Spain. The GA-SMS advisory board already comprises more than 25 experts from 15 countries in the field of Patient Empowerment and Self Management Support.
GA-SMS is already in the process of building a collaborative Intranet platform for global multi-lingual reach, using Web 2.0 services like Google Apps, (which includes the simple to use web applications used to create this public site).
Join us
Anyone interested in participating in this innovative international endeavor, is most welcome to submit their application using the on-line form - thank you.
More information
- Presentation at the 2nd Annual Chronic Care Congress 2008, by Dr Manuel Serrano
- (1) World Bank report: Public Policy and the Challenge of Chronic Non-communicable Diseases
- (2) Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions: Building Blocks for Action - report by the World Health Organisation
- Virtual Breakthrough Series (VBTS)
- The Chronic Disease Self Management Programme (CDSMP) - developed by Stanford University School of Medicine (USA)
- Education, Health and Society Foundation (EHSF), Spain
- Expert Patient Programme (EPP-Spain)
- Global Alliance for Self-Management Support (on the EPP-Spain website)
- Health Foundation - (UK)
- The photgraph at the top of this post is from a web page of the UN sponsored ICT, Science and Technology Division (ISTD), a section of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).