News Release

Treatment costs fall and quality improves when patients use self-treatment tools

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Encouraging patients to become involved in providing their own care can reduce the cost and improve the quality of long-term medical treatment, say researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in PLoS Medicine this week.

Harold DeMonaco and Eric von Hippel say that there is now a body of research to support their assertion. "Such studies found that self-management produced higher quality outcomes at lower costs than conventional models of care," they say.

The authors define self-management as:

(1) engaging in activities that protect and promote health

(2) monitoring and managing symptoms and signs of illness

(3) managing the impacts of illness on function, emotions, and interpersonal relationships; and

(4) adhering to treatment regimens.

Examples of such self-management tools are those that allow patients with diabetes to calculate the correct dose of insulin and then inject it themselves, and tools that allow people with heart failure or depression to adjust the dosage of their medicines themselves based on their symptoms.

In their essay, the authors consider the advantages and limitations of self-management tools and consider why these tools have not become more widespread in medical practice.

"We propose that the time has come," they say, "for health systems to support appropriate and appropriately timed shifts from practitioner-based care to patient self-management."

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EMBARGO: MONDAY, 16 April, 5 P.M. PDT

Everything published by PLoS Medicine is Open Access: freely available for anyone to read, download, redistribute and otherwise use, as long as the authorship is properly attributed.

Please mention PLoS Medicine in your report and use the links below to take your readers straight to the online articles:

Citation: DeMonaco HJ, von Hippel E (2007) Reducing medical costs and improving quality via self-management tools. PLoS Med 4(4): e104.

PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040104

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-04-demonaco.pdf

Related image for press use: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-04-demonaco-image.pdf - Caption: An example of a toolkit for all literacy level patients with congestive heart failure (adapted from Ref. 19)

CONTACT:
Harold DeMonaco
Massachusetts General Hospital
Decision Support and Quality Management
101 Merrimac Street
Boston, MA 02114
United States of America
+1 617 724-8253
hdemonaco@partners.org

THE FOLLOWING RESEARCH ARTICLES WILL ALSO BE PUBLISHED ONLINE:

Antibody to aquaporin 4 in the diagnosis of neuromyelitis optica

A newly developed method to detect antibodies to the aquaporin 4 water channel can help discriminate between neuromyelitis optica, multiple sclerosis, and other inflammatory diseases.

Citation: Paul F, Jarius S, Aktas O, Bluthner M, Bauer O , et al. (2007) Antibody to aquaporin 4 in the diagnosis of neuromyelitis optica. PLoS Med 4(4): e133.

PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040133

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-04-zipp.pdf

CONTACT:
Frauke Zipp
Cecilie-Vogt-Clinic for Molecular Neurology
Charite´ ,
University Medicine Berlin,
Chariteplatz 1
Berlin, 10117
Germany
+49 (30) 450-539028
+49 (30) 450-539906 (fax)
frauke.zipp@charite.de


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