Webinar Addresses Care for Multiple Chronic Conditions
November 11, 2021, 12:00 p.m. News Staff — Family physicians play a critical role in chronic disease management. In 2017, Margot Savoy, M.D., M.P.H., who now serves as the Academy’s senior vice president for education, co-authored a paper on the role of primary care physicians in managing chronic disease that quoted the AAFP’s own definition of primary care, which it said “includes health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance, counseling, patient education, (and) diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses in a variety of health care settings.”
More recently, a CDC research brief estimated that in 2018, the last year for which data were available, more than 51% of all U.S. adults had at least one of 10 commonly diagnosed chronic conditions (arthritis, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, current asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, hypertension, stroke and weak or failing kidneys), and more than 27% of all adults had two or more of these conditions — an increase from 25.5% only a few years earlier.
To assist FPs and other clinicians in providing optimal care for individuals with multiple chronic conditions, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on Nov. 18 will sponsor a free webinar on the topic. The webinar will begin at 11 a.m. EST and runs for one hour.
The webcast’s speakers and topics are
- Arlene Bierman, M.D., M.S., “Transforming Care for People With Multiple Chronic Conditions: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Research Agenda”;
- Lucy Savitz, Ph.D., M.B.A., and Elizabeth Bayliss, M.D., M.S.P.H. (a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, and a senior clinician investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Colorado Institute for Health Research, also in Aurora), “Emerging Models of Care for Individuals With Multiple Chronic Conditions”;
- Judith Vick, M.D., M.P.H., and Jennifer Wolff, Ph.D., “A Scoping Review of Person and Family Engagement in the Context of Multiple Chronic Conditions”;
- Lipika Samal, M.D., M.P.H., and David Dorr, M.D., M.S., “Health Information Technology to Improve Care for People With Multiple Chronic Conditions”; and
- Victor Montori, M.D., M.Sc., “Removing the Blindfold: The Centrality of Care in Caring for Patients With Multiple Chronic Conditions.”
Each of the speakers served as an author or co-author in a special issue of Health Services Research that was published in October. The issue features several additional articles on items such as the care of veterans with multiple health conditions and the effect of the length of participation in patient-centered medical homes on quality of care.
Participants can attend the webinar by phone or via Zoom using the link above.
The webinar complements a virtual research summit on the care of patients with multiple chronic conditions hosted by AHRQ in November 2020. The summit webpage contains a copy of the event’s proceedings, links to slide decks and presentation videos, and other materials.