Population identification processes not only help to identify the specific patient within a system, but also identifies the risk factors associated with genetic and environmental factors.. Within health care there is a strong movement to underscore awareness in cost-effective evidence based practice. Guidelines for care are being generated increasingly through peer reviewed research and literature review processes. These guidelines give weighting to the appropriateness of interventions within disease processes, and provide a guideline to the medical community as to the best practice for care in specific diseases. Within the medical community there is increasing acceptance of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary care practices. In the old days, the physician was the dominant member of the community and nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists practiced under the prescription of the physician. Although this practice may still exist regionally, throughout the world there is a shift to a more collaborative model where the patient benefits from the expertise of medical specialists and allied health professionals alike while his or her family physician remains the gate keeper of care. Within the DM model too, there is strong emphasis not only on the management of existing disease but also on screening processes that can help to identify disease and the risk for disease at an earlier stage. This proactive approach and the public education processes that have partnered the process have helped the general public understand environmental risks better, and primary health prevention processes have become established norms in care.
The DMAA goes on, within its definition of to describe a disease management appraoch, that supports the patient physician relationship. It supports a plan of care for identified disease processes. The approach emphasizes prevention, both of exacerbations of established diseases, but also of undetected diseases within a primary care scenario. It shifts the locus of control of disease back to the patient, supporting a patient centered systematic approach where the patient becomes a partner in his or her care.
The Approach has built in feedback loops that are employed in continuously evaluating not only the economic and health outcomes of care, but also takes a look at the more humanistic side of care. Within that context, MedcomSoft is creating a database of outcome measures and function, which will not only help to add more personal dimension to the documentation that the physician/allied health professional user can create, but will also help to quantify dimensions meaningful to the patient. Typically the patient will seek help from their physician when they are unable to cope not only with their regular activities of daily life, but also their role in society. Functional outcome measurement provides this dimension.
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