Objective: To identify patterns of care and associated costs for typical patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a US managed-care setting. Design: Retrospective analysis of administrative data from a proprietary managed-care research database. Patients: 6371 patients with...

Pharmacists are in an ideal position to assess, monitor and treat adherence-related problems that can adversely affect patients' health outcomes. To accomplish these goals, pharmacists must accept the responsibilities and challenges of a primary care provider. They also must assume an...

Effective management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is aimed at prevention of disease progression, relief of symptoms, improvement in exercise tolerance, improvement in health status, prevention of complications, prevention of exacerbations and reduction in mortality. Pulmonary...

Many health plans and providers rely on return on investment (ROI) to determine the value of a disease management programme. ROI, however, is not the most meaningful measure of the true value of a programme. Depending on the methods used to calculate costs and determine the size of the...

Introduction: Men are less likely to use preventive services than women, perhaps because of a perceived lack of timely access to healthcare. This paper reports the results of the Men's Health Screening Program offered by Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems in Marietta, Georgia, USA. Methods:...

Over the past several years, the healthcare industry has been struggling as a whole for effective ways to manage chronic disease and illness. In the US and in countries with socialized medicine, healthcare has either been rationed, restricted or had access limited to various healthcare services...

Disease management has become an increasingly popular tool used to manage people with chronic diseases in managed care organizations. The implementation of these programs, coupled with pressures to document quality and control costs, has increased the need for information regarding the health...