Patient-first technology: Improving care for the chronically ill

Prevention is one of the most important aspects of health care, but what about those patients who already have serious chronic illnesses that do not have a cure? Harvey Fineberg, MD, president of the  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, spoke last week at Health 2.0 in Silicon Valley reminding entrepreneurs that we need to develop solutions for patients with chronic illnesses to live happier, more comfortable lives.   Since his time as President of the Institute of Medicine from 2002 to 2014, Dr. Fineberg said he ’s been working toward understanding where and how a patient-centered health system is possible and where the current system is falling short.“Our objective is to improve the experience and outcomes of patient care,” Dr. Fineberg said. His work is centered around a group of patients that often is too diffusely scattered, patients who don’t fall into a single disease category and are not “well caught in our health care system.”“This is a group of patients who have serious illness,” he said. “[They] have one or more long-lasting conditions that is not curable and that changes in an important way your function and your ability to live your life the way you would like.” Though the importance of technology is obvious, Dr. Fineberg said, there is one fundamental driver that is so basic it is often overlooked —demographic and epidemiologic trends.“Two thirds of those today who are age 65 or older have two or more chronic diagnoses, that doesn’t ...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news