Chronic Disease

Chronic Care

European health care systems are caught in an increasingly-challenging situation: more Europeans will require treatment for chronic diseases even as financial and healthcare resources shrink. An estimated 37% of Europeans will be aged 60 or over by 2050. Many will develop chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes mellitus.
In the past, European healthcare systems were organised around acute care, a branch of healthcare in which patients receive active but short-term care for acute illness, severe injury, or an urgent medical condition at its onset. Acute care models make sense when communicable diseases are the primary reason people seek out healthcare. However, today chronic disease rates far outpace communicable diseases, and the majority of patients’ care needs have changed to long-term, chronic care—the exact opposite of acute care. This explains why large-scale change is needed in healthcare systems.
Three essential shifts—prevention and early intervention, citizen empowerment, and a move to in-home care and community based care—form the backbone of the modern chronic care based model needed for European healthcare systems to meet the challenges that lay ahead. And the stakes are high; 86% of all deaths in Europe, approximately four million a year, are related to chronic diseases. Rising rates of chronic disease combined with an ageing population are placing a heavy burden on the EU economic growth.
Sources: United Nations World Population Ageing: 1950-2050 WHO high-level consultation EU White Paper

Chronic Disease

Citizens and Communities: Active Participants

For chronic care to be truly effective, citizens must be empowered to understand and participate in their care from prevention to treatment, from hospital to home.

CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT

All citizens will be patients at some point in their lives. If individuals understand their abilities, opportunities and responsibilities and know how to navigate the complexity of health systems, they will be better able to prevent or manage chronic disease. Health literacy, technology and patient involvement in care are key to making healthcare more user-friendly. This means governments must shift away from medical paternalism and see citizens as custodians of their own health.

IN-HOME AND COMMUNITY-BASED CARE

Most hospital systems aren’t currently structured to handle the volume of patients who will be needing chronic care in the near future. Using new technologies (m-health and e-health) to monitor and care for patients at home or in community-based care rather than in hospital settings will be key to the restructuring of care delivery. This shift will reduce the risk of infections in the hospitals, ease constraints on public healthcare resources, and above all, reduce system strain due to a lack of physicians and provide better health outcomes for patients.

Source:
EU Whitepaper

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Prevention

Spotlight on Prevention: When, Who and How?

Unhealthy lifestyles and lack of physical activity are key factors in the development of chronic diseases. Early prevention and diagnosis, better education, and above all collaboration among governments, patient organizations, and industry are crucial to prevent chronic diseases from arising.

article

1 min

EVENT

Citizens and Communities: Active Participants

In-Home Care

Efficient reorganisation of care delivery will require shifting care for chronic diseases from hospitals to homes. Hospitals are designed to treat acutely ill patients who...

8 min

M-Health

In the near future, patients may need to make many fewer trips to the doctor’s office. Mobile technology is already starting to reduce the frequency of medical visits...

11 min