ABSTRACT
Disease management (DM) programs refer broadly to programs that seek to improve the care of patients with specific chronic diseases by complementing their usual primary and specialty care with some variety of additional services. Also called care management and care coordination, DM aims to address the common failures of traditional episodic, symptom-based care of chronic diseases such as asthma and heart failure by teaching patients to manage their own disease, increasing communication among multiple providers, and emphasizing proactive prevention of exacerbations and complications of chronic disease. Disease management programs typically target high-risk or high-cost patients, emphasize clinical practice guidelines, employ telephone support to monitor and motivate patients, and aim to be cost effective by reducing costly complications, hospitalizations, or emergency visits.1
