Technological Innovation in Care Coordination for Chronic Conditions

question
Technological Innovation in Care Coordination:
Research and discuss at least 3 emerging technologies that can be used to improve care coordination for chronic conditions.
Answer
1. Introduction
Technological innovation provides the potential for transforming health care delivery. Efficiency, improved access, support for patient self-care, and better clinical outcomes are the promise of informatics-enabled care. Most literature on this topic focuses on the actual technologies. For example, a recent special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association was devoted to the topic of home monitoring, with a number of these articles discussing the technical aspects of various informatics solutions. Other work has focused on the development of tools for shared decision making, again concentrating on the specifics of the technologies involved. There is a more limited amount of work looking at the process of technological innovation. In his blended care model, Erlingson states that new technologies must be tested and integrated into patient care in a systematic way, something he has developed but not yet fully written up that is something we hope to discuss with him. Lorenzi and Riley have done significant work in the area of Action Research, developing and testing various methodologies to promote success in implementing new informatics tools. This work involved an 18-month investigation on the implementation of work changes and computer-based patient records at Vanderbilt University, which resulted in an increased understanding of the process of change as it related to information systems. This work was a series of studies to learn better ways of making systematic changes to better the way care is delivered using information technology. While it focused on the process of change, it did not focus on an innovation in care coordination, nor was it really a study designed to innovate a technology.
1.1 Background
Effective care coordination has been pinpointed as a means to improving care for those with chronic conditions. Care coordination is defined in a number of ways by healthcare professionals and researchers. A simple definition is that care coordination organizes patient care activities and information to facilitate the appropriate delivery of healthcare services. A somewhat more complex definition by McDonald et al. states that care coordination is the deliberate organization of patient care activities between two or more participants involved in a patient’s care to facilitate the appropriate delivery of healthcare services. Organizing care involves the marshalling of personnel and other resources needed to carry out all required patient care activities and is often managed by the exchange of information among participants involved in a patient’s care. Care coordination has been said to identify the patient’s needs and arrange and monitor the services of a care plan in a coherent and cost-effective manner.[4]
Improvements in life expectancies over the past decade have led to an increase in the number of individuals living with debilitating chronic medical conditions. A chronic condition is defined as a medical illness or impairment that lasts six months or longer, is not self-limiting, and often necessitates ongoing medical management. It is estimated that over 90 million individuals live with chronic illnesses in the United States, with that number expected to increase.[1] In the state of Washington alone, the population of individuals over age 65 is expected to increase by 68% between 2000 and 2020, resulting in a sizable increase in the number of individuals living with chronic medical conditions who, at ages 65 and older, account for approximately 75% of all healthcare expenditures.[2] Chronic conditions are a major public health issue and the primary reason for rises in healthcare costs. It therefore comes as no surprise that the Institute of Medicine has recently called for a redesign of the healthcare system, saying that the current care for individuals with chronic conditions is often inadequate and that innovation is urgently required.[3]
1.2 Purpose of the Study
Large segments of the population in the United States are affected by chronic conditions, and the numbers are expected to rise in the coming years. It is estimated that 125 million Americans are currently living with some type of chronic condition. This number is expected to grow by more than 25%, to 157 million, by 2020. It is also estimated that 1 in 4 people have two or more chronic conditions. The care of individuals with chronic conditions poses a significant challenge to the US healthcare system. Coordinating care for individuals with chronic conditions is particularly difficult for a number of reasons. Firstly, chronic conditions tend to be waxing and waning, which makes predicting and planning for healthcare needs more difficult. Secondly, chronic conditions often necessitate care from multiple healthcare providers across a number of different healthcare settings. Finally, individuals with chronic conditions are more likely than healthier individuals to suffer from functional limitations. The combination of these three factors makes the care of individuals with chronic conditions costly and fragmented. Research has shown that well-coordinated care can improve care quality for those with chronic conditions, although what constitutes effective care coordination has been insufficiently investigated. Advances in information technology have the potential to greatly improve care coordination. Given the assessed need for improvement in care coordination for chronically ill individuals, it is both surprising and encouraging that care coordination is one of the six aims for improvement in the new Affordable Care Act. The purpose of this study is to explore how information technology can be utilized to improve care coordination for individuals with chronic conditions. This will be examined through a mixed methods analysis of a care coordination intervention at Group Health Cooperative. The specific objectives of this study are as follows: – To examine the use of IT in care coordination for patients with chronic conditions. – To evaluate the impact of an IT-based care coordination intervention on patient and provider outcomes. – To understand the process by which an IT-based intervention can affect change in care coordination.
2. Emerging Technologies for Care Coordination
2.1 Telemedicine
2.1.1 Remote Patient Monitoring
2.1.2 Video Conferencing
2.2 Artificial Intelligence
2.2.1 Predictive Analytics
2.2.2 Natural Language Processing
2.3 Wearable Devices
2.3.1 Smartwatches
2.3.2 Fitness Trackers
3. Benefits of Using Emerging Technologies
3.1 Improved Communication and Collaboration
3.2 Enhanced Patient Engagement
3.3 Timely and Accurate Data Collection
3.4 Personalized Care Plans
4. Challenges in Implementing Emerging Technologies
4.1 Privacy and Security Concerns
4.2 Cost and Resource Allocation
4.3 Training and Adoption
5. Case Studies
5.1 Case Study 1: Successful Implementation of Telemedicine
5.2 Case Study 2: AI-Driven Care Coordination in a Hospital Setting
5.3 Case Study 3: Wearable Devices for Remote Monitoring
6. Future Directions and Potential Impacts
6.1 Integration of Emerging Technologies with Existing Healthcare Systems
6.2 Policy and Regulatory Considerations
6.3 Long-term Effects on Care Coordination and Patient Outcomes
7. Conclusion