Last week I attended the 2006 Disease Management Leadership Forum in Denver Colorado. The meeting was excellent and provided a clear vision for those involved in the management of patients with chronic conditions. One of the highlights of the conference was the release of the long-awaited Outcomes Guidelines Report. The report was the result of a more than a year-long effort led by the Disease Management Association of America (DMAA) to provide consensus-based outcome guidelines for evaluating disease management programs.

The co-chairs of the Outcomes Steering Committee were Donald Fettorolf, MD, MBA, and Sue Jennings, PhD. The committee was made up of leaders from various disease management organizations across the country. The final report represents work by DMAA leaders, its corporate and individual members, and prominent external stakeholders such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the Case Management Society of America (CMSA).

The Outcomes Guidelines Report provides an initial set of guidelines developed for use in reporting program outcomes. The guidelines include four sections: the foundation for an evaluation methodology; measures of financial impact; measures of clinical impact; and measures that represent areas beyond financial and clinical considerations (such as overall health status, satisfaction with the program, lifestyle measures and medication adherence). DMAA does not intend the report to be a static document, but to evolve as new research becomes available and new areas of interest to the disease management community are brought forward. Phase I of the project is intended to be the first step toward a full set of comprehensive guidelines that could help move the disease management industry toward evaluation standardization. The Outcomes Steering Committee will begin work on Phase II in January 2007.

The measures that the Outcomes Guidelines Report highlights should come as no surprise to case managers, as these are the areas of focus we address everyday. The good news is the report offers those who purchase disease management programs a way to measure the performance of companies they contract with, and provides a means to measure their return on investment. This information gives employers and government officials a system of objective measures to help them understand what a disease management program should provide, and to evaluate its performance. To obtain a copy of the Outcomes Guideline Report, please go to www.dmaa.org or call DMAA at 202-737-5980.

Have a good week,

Anne Llewellyn, RN-BC, MS, BHSA, CCM, CRRN
Editor-in-Chief of Across My Desk, Case in Point magazine, and the Case Management Resource Guide
allewellyn@dorlandhealth.com