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Taking a Proactive Step Toward
Disease Prevention
By Jennifer B. Buckley
Does your doctor take a proactive
approach toward disease prevention or does he/she just
wait for you or your care recipient to show symptoms of
a possibly fatal disease? Disease prevention should be
at the top of every health care professionals ballot to
keep patients as healthy as possible and eliminate the
time and hassle of frequent doctors visits, extended
hospital stays and increased use of prescription
medication. It seems logical that preventative measures
through educating patients would be widely used within
the health care industry but they haven’t been. The
Health Management Institute (HMI), a collaborative
effort of several managed care associates, is working to
bring educational materials about disease prevention and
management to health care professionals in order to
eliminate the entire cost of treatment for patients
before it begins.
The American Association of Integrated Healthcare
Delivery Systems, American Association of Managed Care
Nurses, American College of Managed Care Medicine,
National Association of Managed Care Physicians, and
Women in Managed Care comprise the diverse team of care
professionals of the Health Management Institute. These
united associations offer a plethora of experience in
health management to develop resources, publications and
innovative programs to educate the health care industry
about preventing and managing diseases like diabetes and
asthma. HMI houses a decision-making council comprised
of one member of each association.
HMI is looking to implement programs such as: phone
consultations, Internet questions and answers,
prescription hotlines and other methods to keep patients
as healthy and happy as possible. The concept of
preventative health management is sensible but difficult
to initialize.
“We need to convince all sectors of the market,
including consumers, to work toward a common goal,” says
Laura Bousquet, HMI’s Director of Communication. No one
will deny that the ideas of prevention, demand
management and disease management would reduce costs and
increase overall health and satisfaction. But how do we
convince a physician that bearing the cost of hiring a
nurse practitioner to handle phone consultations or
installing a new computer system to correspond with
patients via the Internet will save money in the long
run?”
Another challenge according to Laura is the commitment
of the patient to follow the advice of their doctor and
invest in vitamins, therapies and preventative
management techniques that will keep them healthy.
Currently, HMI is working on a survey to be distributed
to health care professionals to examine their disease
prevention and management practices in order to overcome
these barriers.
Another project by HMI to educate the industry is the
“Health Management Summit 2000: with Hyperlipidemia as a
Model.” The summit is geared specifically toward health
care professionals. It is a two-day conference on
November 17th and 18th at the Sheraton National in
Arlington, VA. The First day of the conference will be
an overview of disease management and prevention and the
second day will be a presentation on case management
using Hyperlipidemia as a model. The information given
to professionals that attend the conference will in turn
teach them how to educate their patients.
HMI is the first association to take a proactive
approach to keeping patients healthy. It is beneficial
for patients to take an active role in disease
prevention, so don’t be afraid to talk to your doctor
about how you or your care recipient can reduce your
risk of developing a life threatening disease. If you
would like more information about the Health Management
Institute contact Michele Rodriguez at (804) 747-5823.
Information provided by Laura Bousquet, (804) 527-1905
at the Health Management Institute.
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