Disease management: opportunity for pharmaceutical care?

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Pharmaceutical Care
• Disease Management

Background:

• Traditional healthcare cost control efforts focused on expensive components, often failing or increasing overall costs.
• Previous cost-reduction strategies, particularly for drugs, sometimes led to higher medical expenses.
• A new paradigm, disease management, proposes a comprehensive approach to treating the entire disease process.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and explore the concept of disease management as a novel approach to healthcare.
• To highlight the potential impact of disease management on drug therapy and overall healthcare costs.
• To discuss the implications of disease management for the practice of pharmaceutical care.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of disease management strategies.
• Examination of the relationship between appropriate drug therapy and clinical/economic outcomes.
• Discussion of the role of pharmacists in disease management.

Main Results:

• Disease management shifts care from inpatient/acute settings to preventive and outpatient services.
• Appropriate drug therapy within disease management can significantly impact overall disease cost and outcomes.
• Managed care organizations, PBMs, and pharmaceutical manufacturers show interest in disease management.

Conclusions:

• Disease management presents a promising paradigm for patient care, potentially proving the value of pharmaceutical care beyond drug costs.
• Pharmacists can play a crucial role in implementing disease management strategies.
• Further exploration of disease management's clinical and economic benefits is warranted.