Improving the Efficient and Equitable Care of Patients with Chronic Medical Conditions
Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration (ICDC)
The problem
Obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, and an aging population have contributed to an epidemic of high blood-pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, and vascular disease. These chronic conditions, which often occur together, are major causes of death and disability. Effective treatments exist but many patients do not receive the best treatment available or may not be diagnosed until the disease is advanced.
The team
This team of 23 researchers, clinicians, and decision-makers from the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta, the University of Toronto, Queens University, the University of Aberdeen, Alberta Health Services, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, Statistics Canada, and the University of Alberta Hospital will bring expertise from a number of different disciplines to bear on this problem.
The plan
The team will study patients with existing disease and those at highest risk of developing the above conditions. Researchers will then identify the social, educational, geographic, economic, cultural, and psychological factors that influence people to make unhealthy choices. This knowledge will be used to develop and implement new programs to better treat and manage high blood-pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, and vascular disease.
The outcomes
Researchers and healthcare decision-makers will work together to ensure the use of the best evidence in creating programs to improve the health of those at risk or suffering from these chronic conditions, diagnose and manage them earlier, and reduce the healthcare costs of treating them.