Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The aging of the population and the increasing prevalence of multiple chronic illnesses, along with multiplying options for clinical management, pose great challenges to both the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the broader US health care system. Developing effective and efficient health care for persons with complex and multiple medical conditions is a national priority. Therefore, research in this area is critically important. In 2006, the VHA Health Services Research and Development Service held a state-of-the-Art (SOTA) conference titled "Managing Complexity in Chronic Care" to clarify our current understanding of the management of complex chronic conditions and suggest directions for research to better address this important problem. OBJECTIVE: This article provides an overview of the major findings from that conference, including major presentations, summaries of the workgroup deliberations, and a list of research topics that were thought to be of highest importance to advancing our ability to provide medical care for persons with complex chronic care needs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 374-378 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of general internal medicine |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | SUPPL. 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2007 |
Funding
Acknowledgments: This SOTA was sponsored by the VA’s Health Services Research and Development Service. It is important to acknowledge contributions of all the conference participants for their contributions through their ideas and commentary. In particular, a special thank you to the SOTA workgroup leaders who both facilitated their group discussion but also summarized the workgroup deliberations in preparation for this overview, including (listed alphabetically) Hanna Bloomfield, MD, MPH, Hayden B. Bosworth, PhD, Polly Hitchcock Noel, PhD, Denise Hynes, PhD, RN, Brian Mittman, PhD, Bonnie Wakefield, PhD, RN, William Weeks, MD, MBA. Also it is important to acknowledge the editorial assistance of Geraldine McGlynn M.Ed. and Diane Hanks in the preparation of this overview. The SOTA conference would not have been possible without the expertise and guidance of Ms. Geraldine McGlynn and her staff of the VA’s HSR&D Center for Information Dissemination and Education Resources (CIDER). Lastly, these proceedings of the conference would not have been possible without the support of the VA’s HSR&D service, and the combined efforts of Ms. McGlynn, the staff at CIDER, and the great editorial team at JGIM.
Keywords
- Chronic illness
- Clustered illness
- Co-morbidity
- Conference proceeding
- Veteran
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Internal Medicine