Meeting the Challenge of Chronic Illness / Edition 1

by Robert L. Kane MD, Reinhard Priester JD, Annette M. Totten PhD, Edward Wagner MD MPH

Overview

Chronic conditions such as arthritis, heart disease, and Parkinson disease are the principal cause of all sickness and death in the United States and represent the vast majority of health care expenditures. Although we now live in a world dominated by chronic conditions, health care is still organized around a commitment to treating acute illnesses.

Meeting the Challenge of Chronic Illness examines current deficiencies in chronic illness care and explores ways to improve it. Addressing the challenges of shifting from the primacy of acute illnesses to the predominance of chronic conditions, the authors identify the components necessary to reorganize and reform health care: properly prepared health care workers; involved patients and families; appropriate use of new technologies, especially information systems; an appropriate role for prevention; and the creation of funding approaches that will provide necessary incentives.

This book calls on policy makers, health care providers, and educators to address one of the greatest challenges facing the health care system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801882098
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	12/21/2005
Series:	Gerontology
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert L. Kane, M.D., is a professor and the Minnesota Chair in Long-Term Care and Aging at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Reinhard Priester, J.D., is a coordinator in the Division of Health Services Research and Policy of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Annette M. Totten, Ph.D. is director of the Center for the Study of Aging at Boise State University.

Read an Excerpt

"This book views the issues from the perspectives of the patients and families and of professional caregivers and policy makers. Unlike many discussions of chronic illness care, it considers the entire spectrum of chronic illness, from fully functional individuals trying to control their illness and prevent complications to frail, older people in need of ongoing services. We have needed a thoughtful, comprehensive examination of the evidence and issues in caring for individuals and families with chronic illness. Now we have one."—from the foreword by Edward Wagner, M.D., M.P.H., Director, MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation, Seattle, Washington

Table of Contents

Foreword by Edward Wagner, M.D., M.P.H.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Caring For People With Chronic Illness
1. What's So special about Chronic Illness Care?
2. The Minensions of Chrpnic Illness
3. How the Current System Fails People with Chronic Illness
Part II. Opportunities for Changes
4. Reorganizing care in the Face of Chronic illness
5. The Right Health Care Workers with the Right Skills
6. Patients and Families
7. Innovative Technology
8. Prevention
9. Paying for Chronic Care
Part III. Prospects for Change
10. The Context for Reform
11. Next Steps
Appendix A.
Appendix B.
Notes
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Lois Quam

"An extremely important book for our times. Meticulously researched and based on the authors' years of experience in dealing with these issues, this book pushes us to rethink the way health care works for our nation's most vulnerable citizens."

From the Publisher

An extremely important book for our times. Meticulously researched and based on the authors' years of experience in dealing with these issues, this book pushes us to rethink the way health care works for our nation's most vulnerable citizens.
—Lois Quam, Chief Executive Officer, Ovations, a UnitedHealth Group Company

This book effectively deals with the misfit between our health care system and an aging America.
—Robert N. Butler, M.D., author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning book Why Survive? Being Old in America

Robert N. Butler

"This book effectively deals with the misfit between our health care system and an aging America."

Editorial Reviews

Provides interested readers with a succinct vehicle for becoming conversant on this important topic.
—Jennifer L. Wolff, JAMA

This book provides a much needed assessment of the greatest challenges in health care today.
—Germaine Cornelissen, Key Reporter

This book is useful for policy makers, health care providers, and educators to address one of the greatest challenges facing the health care system today.
—Caregiver

Most appealing to thoughtful academics.
—Amasa B. Ford, Gerontologist

From the Publisher

This book is useful for policy makers, health care providers, and educators to address one of the greatest challenges facing the health care system today.

Caregiver

Provides interested readers with a succinct vehicle for becoming conversant on this important topic.

JAMA - Jennifer L. Wolff

This book provides a much needed assessment of the greatest challenges in health care today.

Key Reporter - Germaine Cornelissen

Most appealing to thoughtful academics.

Gerontologist - Amasa B. Ford

Most appealing to thoughtful academics.

— Amasa B. Ford

Gerontologist

This book provides a much needed assessment of the greatest challenges in health care today.

— Germaine Cornelissen

Key Reporter

Provides interested readers with a succinct vehicle for becoming conversant on this important topic.

— Jennifer L. Wolff

JAMA