Principles for assessing disease management outcomes.
Disease management (DM) is rapidly becoming an important force in the late 20th and early 21st century as a strategy for managing the chronic illness of large populations. Given the increasing visibility of DM programs, the clinical, economic and financial impact of this support are vital to DM program accountability and its acceptance as a solution to the twin challenges of achieving affordable, quality health care. Measuring and reporting outcomes in DM is difficult. DM programs must adapt to local market conditions and customer desires, which in turn limits generalizability, and still account for the overlapping/interlocking/multifaceted nature of the interventions included in any DM program. The Disease Management Association of America convened a Steering Committee to suggest a preferred approach, not a mandated or standardized approach for DM program evaluation. This paper presents the Steering Committee's "Consensus Statement" and "Guiding Principles" for robust evaluation.
Fitzner
Karen
K
Disease Management Association of America, Washington, DC 20004, USA. kfitzner@dmaa.org
Sidorov
Jaan
J
Fetterolf
Don
D
Wennberg
David
D
Eisenberg
Edward
E
Cousins
Michael
M
Hoffman
Joel
J
Haughton
John
J
Charlton
Warwick
W
Krause
David
D
Woolf
Allen
A
Mcdonough
Kenneth
K
Todd
Warren
W
Fox
Kathe
K
Plocher
David
D
Juster
Iver
I
Stiefel
Matt
M
Villagra
Victor
V
Duncan
Ian
I
D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014481:United States