Designing and developing effective disease management programmes - Key decisions for programme success

The effectiveness of disease management programmes hinges on a combination of factors, all of which are important to consider when selecting a program me for implementation. This article provides a brief overview of disease ma nagement programmes commonly found in healthcare organisations, highlightin g the issue of programme effectiveness. Seven factors critical to the design and development of an effective diseas e management programme are outlined to guide practitioners and healthcare m anagers who are responsible for making decisions about such programmes. The se decision factors are: (i) defining and establishing programme goals; (ii ) defining a target population; (iii) selecting measures of programme succe ss; (iv) determining data availability and information systems capability; (v) deciding to build or buy all or parts of a programme; (vi) determining and enhancing the level of physician involvement; and (vii) selecting strat egies to enhance organisational support. Careful consideration of these fac tors in the decision stage for a disease management programme will help ens ure effective and appropriate programme development and implementation. Hea lthcare managers applying these considerations will be better able to devel op disease management programmes that achieve their objectives and provide a foundation for organisational success.