I wrote last month about the role of chronic diseases in healthcare-cost growth, so I was excited to see a new report from the Institute of Medicine called Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action.
When I think of chronic illness, diabetes and heart disease are what leap to my mind — in part because they’re so tied to the lifestyle factors of smoking, inadequate exercise, and poor nutrition, and in part because they cost our health system so much money. The IOM report notes that chronic illness represents 75% of the $2 trillion the US spends each year on healthcare, but it also emphasizes that the goal of addressing chronic diseases conditions isn’t just to slow the growth of healthcare costs, but to improve quality of life. The report is a response to a request by CDC and the Arthritis Foundation to “help identify ways to reduce disability and improve the function and quality of life for people living with chronic illness.”
Another refreshing aspect of this report is that it doesn’t just focus on the usual suspects of chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, etc.). While the authors seek to assist health officials in prioritizing the use of limited healthcare dollars, they’re also careful to avoid ranking diseases by a single metric. The report highlights nine “clinical clusters” that together “encompass and flesh out the range of key issues that affect the quality of life of patients with the full spectrum of chronic illnesses.” Here’s my quick summary of the nine conditions, which I hope will encourage some of you check out the full report. (The diseases are described in Section 2 of the report, and the uncorrected proof is currently available for free downloading.)
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