REPLACING PHOTO Healthcare Experts Debate Solutions for Chronic Disease Management and the Aging
Intel Calls for Industry Collaboration, Announces Product in Development for Management of Chronic Disease
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HEALTHCARE EXPERTS DEBATE SOLUTIONS FOR CHRONIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT AND THE AGING
Intel Calls for Industry Collaboration, Announces Product in Development for Management of Chronic Disease
At a summit hosted by Intel Corporation today, a group of healthcare experts and decision-makers debated solutions to improve care for people with chronic disease and to ease the strain that it and the growing aging population place on individuals and families, the nation and on the healthcare system and providers.
Participants challenged each other to improve the quality and integration of patient care, including the role technology can play in reducing the costs for health institutions and insurance providers.
Craig Barrett, Intel's Chairman and American Health Information Community board member, called for greater urgency of collaboration in looking at new ways to deal with chronic disease.
"We all have an interest in improving the quality and cost of our healthcare system -- as patients, caregivers, employers and as a nation," Barrett told summit attendees. "We need to look at new and innovative ways to apply technology to help solve health problems and improve health outcomes. We must work to make remote patient monitoring and integrated telehealth solutions part of the healthcare delivery system."
Chronic illnesses are overwhelming the nation's healthcare system, with more than 80 percent of healthcare spending going to people with one or more chronic conditions. With the aging baby boomer population, it is expected that the chronic care crisis will only become a greater burden to the healthcare system.
"There are more than 50 million people in America caring for loved ones with a chronic illness or disability," said Suzanne Mintz, president of the National Family Caregivers Association. "These family caregivers are providing 80 percent of all long-term care services, which are conservatively valued at $306 billion a year. They are truly an invisible workforce literally underpinning our health and long-term care system."
Intel's Commitment to Personal Telehealth
At the summit, Intel said it would help evolve the current model of care by connecting patients, their families and healthcare providers to the right information at the right time to allow for more informed decision-making. This would empower patients to take a more active role in their own care from the comfort and convenience of home. Toward this end, Intel announced it is developing products to better care for aging and chronically ill individuals, the first of which is focused on managing chronic diseases.
Intel's eight years of health research to understand the needs of the worldwide aging population has laid the foundation for its product development for the aging and chronically ill. The products under development are based on the real needs of the aging populations and their caregivers that Intel has discovered through ethnographic research.
In addition to developing products, Intel is helping create a marketplace of interoperable personal telehealth devices and services through the Continua Health Alliance. Through Intel's collaboration in Continua and other efforts, it is trying to ease adoption barriers, including regulatory, reimbursement and policy. Intel will also work with healthcare organizations and insurers to test the solutions and apply those findings to the product development process.
Summit Participants Come from all Aspects of Healthcare
Participants in the Chronic Care at the Crossroads summit included healthcare professionals, payors and organizations focused on the needs of patients and caregivers. While they debated many of the solutions, there was a unifying call for a paradigm shift from today's reactive model of care to one that enables a proactive, continuous and integrated approach to improving patient health, while reducing stress to the healthcare system and the patient's family members.
The Chronic Care at the Crossroads summit brought together approximately 15 luminaries from 12 healthcare organizations. Susan Dentzer, health correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," moderated three panel discussions and question and answer sessions featuring representatives from Aetna, the American Academy of Family Physicians, CIGNA, the Disease Management Association of America, the National Family Caregivers Association, Partners Healthcare and others.
For more information about what Intel is doing in healthcare, visit www.intel.com/healthcare. To learn more about the Continua Health Alliance, visit www.continuaalliance.org/home.
Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.
Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
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Source: Intel Corporation
Released Jul 17, 2007 • 12:00 PM EDT