Multidisciplinary treatment for peripheral arterial occlusive disease and the role of eHealth and mHealth

Abstract

Hugo JP Fokkenrood,1,2 Gert-Jan Lauret,1,2 Marc RM Scheltinga,4 Cor Spreeuwenberg,3 Rob A de Bie,2 Joep AW Teijink1,21Department of Vascular Surgery, Catharina Hospital, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; 2CAPHRI Research School, Department of Epidemiology, 3Department of Integrated Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands; 4Department of Vascular Surgery, Maxima Medical Centre, Veldhoven, The NetherlandsAbstract: Increasingly unaffordable health care costs are forcing care providers to develop economically viable and efficient health care plans. Currently, only a minority of all newly diagnosed peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) patients receive efficient and structured conservative treatment for their disease. The aim of this article is to introduce an innovative effective treatment model termed ClaudicatioNet. This concept was launched in The Netherlands as a means to combat treatment shortcomings and stimulate cohesion and collaboration between stakeholders. The overall goal of ClaudicatioNet is to stimulate quality and transparency of PAOD treatment by optimizing multidisciplinary health care chains on a national level. Improved quality is based on stimulating both a theoretical and practical knowledge base, while eHealth and mHealth technologies are used to create clear insights of provided care to enhance quality control management, in addition these technologies can be used to increase patient empowerment, thereby increasing efficacy of PAOD treatment. This online community consists of a web portal with public and personal information supplemented with a mobile application. By connecting to these tools, a social community is created where patients can meet and keep in touch with fellow patients, while useful information for supervising health care professionals is provided. The ClaudicatioNet concept will likely create more efficient and cost-effective PAOD treatment by improving the quality of supervised training programs, extending possibilities and stimulating patient empowerment by using eHealth and mHealth solutions. A free market principle is introduced by introducing transparency to provided care by using objective and subjective outcome parameters. Cost-effectiveness can be achieved using supervised training programs, which may substitute for or postpone expensive invasive vascular interventions.Keywords: intermittent claudication, multidisciplinary treatment, cost-effectiveness, eHealth