This article underscores the importance of using disease registries for proactive management of chronic disease. These registries are not the same concept as traditional disease registries used for reporting to government and public health authorities. These are disease registries which are integral to the day-to-day workflow of patient care and functional use of the EMR. Registries such as this are still woefully under-utilized in healthcare, and should be a standard functional element in EMRs, but yet are a common concept in other industries such as telecom and retail which maintain customer relationship registries based on demographics, buying habits, etc. Disease registries are the first step in creating a standard, data-driven definition for a particular disease, and then proactively managing patients who meet that definition. You can't manage or measure what you haven't defined.
"DENVER – An intensive population management program that matches heart disease patients to personal nurses and clinical pharmacy specialists is able to save lives, reduce hospital visits and drive down costs, according to a new study from Kaiser Permanente Colorado."
