COVID-19 Impact on Chronic

T he present focus of the health services is in saving lives of patients and chronic disease management amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Though various measures taken have positively impacted, efforts are likely to continue to have a major impact on the economy, leading to a loss of employment and income for many.

In the USA, the treatment and care of people with chronic diseases account for an estimated 70% of total health and social care expenditure (Department of Health 2010). Almost half, i.e., approximately 45% or 133 million of all Americans suffer from one or more chronic health conditions. With the ensuing economic downturn that is following the pandemic, chronic illness is expected to increase. It, therefore, becomes incumbent on providers to successfully manage chronic disease by deploying strong patient engagement strategies.

Chronic Disease Management in Healthcare

Through robust care coordination efforts, healthcare providers can drive patient outcomes and get predictive insights that can reduce overall health spending.

Patient-centricity is the key to both patient engagement and chronic disease management. But how do they connect to each other? And how can care providers leverage patient engagement platforms to provide superior care?

Patient engagement being a primary tool in managing chronic diseases, patient education and involvement in their health can make a world of difference to chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart diseases and more.

By engaging patients fully in their care, Providers can administer care plans and enable them to track their health in making this an inclusive engagement. This results in a positive spinoff in ideally preventing deterioration of health conditions and thereby avoidance of costly and invasive interventions.

Effective Patient Engagement for chronic disease management helps patients identify a condition, manage the condition through self-management or manage condition through a provider.

To accomplish these three steps, providers need to employ both interpersonal strategies and health information technology.

• Partnership Medication Adherence with Predictive Analytics
• Patient Education, Support Key for Senior Telehealth Care Access
• Encourage preventive care and early detection

Patient monitoring and tracking tools play a significant role in early detection and preventive care. A comprehensive patient management solution helps patients and providers collaboratively work together to combat early onset diseases.

Through strong engagement strategies, care providers can highlight the significance of regular screenings to ensure the best of preventive care. Providers also must listen to their patients and patient reports on health. Establishing education and communication between patients and all members of the care team is key to chronic disease management solutions.

According to researchers from Kaiser Permanente of Southern California, these technologies help fill gaps in care, which can easily occur for patients with complicated medical conditions. Through various screening functionalities, patient portals can direct important educational material to patients and alert them of new care plans.

Patient portal technology also helps facilitate patient-provider communication. When providers are available to consult through a simple message, they can address patient concerns immediately.
In making these adjustments, patients are both healthy and comfortable between visits and work more quickly toward an effective and long-term treatment option.

Final Thoughts

The healthcare IT industry continues to grow at a faster pace. This has had a tremendously positive impact on both patient-centric solutions and chronic disease management. As providers are overwhelmed with new care management applications, they need to seamlessly integrate virtual health into their workflows to deliver fully-customized and personalized care coordination solutions. To learn more about harnessing patient engagement solutions to optimize chronic disease management, talk to our team

Baldwin, R and Weder di Mauro, B (eds) (2020) Mitigating the COVID Economic Crisis: Act Fast ad Do what it takes. a VoxEU.org eBook, CEPR Press.
Bell, B, N Bloom, J Blundell and L Pistaferri (2020), “Prepare for wage cuts if you are younger and work in a small firm”, VoxEU.org, 6 April.
Department of Health (2010), “Improving the health and wellbeing of people with long term conditions”, Leeds, UK.
Janke, K, K Lee, C Propper, K Shields and M Shields (2020), “Macroeconomic conditions and health in Britain: Aggregation, Dynamics and local area heterogeneity”, CEPR Discussion Paper 14507 (also IZA Discussion Paper No. 13091).