Program ID: Innovation Anthology #363
Program Date: 12/21/2010
Program Category: Health and Medicine
Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration
Getting more bang for the buck is a huge topic of concern in health care.
The new Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration will look at better ways to deliver treatment to patients with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and kidney disease.
The team will receive five million dollars over five years from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions.
Dr. Marcello Tonelli is a kidney specialist at the University of Alberta and one of the team leaders.
He gives one example where combining tests identifies patients at higher risk which saves time and money
DR. MARCELLO TONELLI: The traditional way of identifying people for example with kidney disease is to use a blood based test. And our research shows that if you use a blood test together with a simple cheap, easily available urine test, you really narrow down the number of people that are at risk, and you identify the people who are at the most potential benefit of treatment. So we find where those people are, those at highest risk, it’s a much more manageable number. We locate them. And now we’re working with decision makers to design an interventional program that will make it easier for doctors to identify them and easier for doctors to refer them to the services that they need.
Dr. Tonelli says the chronic disease team includes specialists in medicine, nursing psychology, health economics, and geography.
Thanks today to ALBERTA INNOVATES HEALTH SOLUTIONS
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
