Adoption of disease management model for diabetes in region of Maastricht

Chronic diseases and associated conditions will always pose a challenge to healthcare systems. New healthcare models are being introduced in Western countries in response to a set of problems that are evident to some degree in all health services-for example, uncoordinated arrangements for delivering care, bias towards acute treatment, neglect of preventive care, and inappropriate treatment. 1 These models take account of the pressure on quality and costs of chronic care and originate from the overlapping approaches of integrated care (United States) and shared care (western Europe). 2 3 In the Netherlands, shared care models have acted as a precursor of the recently introduced concept of disease management. Although several disease management initiatives are emerging, the model is not being adopted as fast as might be expected from the benefits that are claimed to result from it. In this article we describe the process of moving from a shared care model to a disease management model by considering recent developments in diabetes care in the region of Maastricht. We also describe the use of health technology assessment to evaluate the model.