IT Key to Future Development of Disease Management

A key role for IT in the integration of patient care is predicted by market analysts, Frost and Sullivan, in a report which is highly critical of companies’ failure to look beyond single product offerings such as drugs or devices.

The report sees the US trend towards “disease management services” as the way ahead with IT providing the cohesive technologies to manage and control care programs at-a-distance.

The report says: “By transforming themselves from occupying a sub-contractor role to being perceived as disease management enablers, a range of US-based companies appear to have gained access to the lions’ share of opportunities in raising care quality, since they are the only company type currently able to provide the right input.”

The aims of such disease management programs are:
• Reducing healthcare costs by engaging participants and their physicians with care plans and education that improve the participants’ health;
• Reducing the future complications of chronic diseases;

• Bringing healthcare costs down by reducing unnecessary hospitalisations, emergency admissions and appointment with healthcare professionals.

The report continues: “However, the IT sector is now emphasising that simply having clinical programs that produce health improvement and reduce costs is no longer sufficient, and that it is essential to provide the necessary integration and connectivity to give real-time information and data to all the stakeholders in a program.”

It notes that there is scope for both the specialist disease management program – for example in haemophilia – and the multiple disease program capable of delivering a co-ordinated campaign to manage multiple and overlapping chronic diseases, cutting administration costs and providing the benefit to patients of a “one stop shop”.

Frost and Sullivan’s analysis acknowledges to differences between the US and European markets, notably the fragmentation and diversity of the different European languages and health systems. It predicts that much of the early activity in disease management will be locally-based, bringing together a range of stakeholders and offering a multitude of opportunities to niche players.

The future will take a different shape, however, when greater interoperability has been achieved. “With everything compatible with everything else, the clinical information system, with the ability to provide computer-aided diagnosis, will be at the heart. Then the company supplying the software will have the ability to supply, or at least control the supply of, all the necessary compatible hardware and other products.

"This will require organisations with considerable resources, and the need for corporate mass will mean that the end-point of the development is likely to be a small number (perhaps five or six) global giants in the area that will dominate the healthcare marketplace,” the report concludes.