Ninth Annual Disease Management Leadership Forum and First Disease Management Association of America-National Associatio

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Dis Manage Health Outcomes 2007; 15 (6): 399-400 1173-8790/07/0006-0399/$44.95/0 © 2007 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved.

Ninth Annual Disease Management Leadership Forum and First Disease Management Association of America-National Association of Manufacturers Integrated Care Summit Las Vegas, Nevada, 16–19 September 2007 Ginny-Louise MacKay Wolters Kluwer Health | Adis, Yardley, Pennsylvania, USA

The ninth annual Disease Management Leadership Forum (DMLF), in conjunction with the inaugural DMAA-NAM (Disease Management Association of America-National Association of Manufacturers) Integrated Care Summit, took place in Las Vegas. The combined events had an overall attendance of approximately 1200 participants and featured more than 80 exhibitors. The inclusion of the DMAA-NAM Integrated Care Summit was not the only first for this meeting: one of the highlights of the conference was the unveiling of the DMAA’s new name and logo. 1. DMAA: the Care Continuum Alliance The DMAA announced a name change to ‘DMAA: the Care Continuum Alliance’, and unveiled a new logo that reflected the change. According to Tracey Moorhead, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the DMAA, the change in name conveyed the expansion in the scope of activities undertaken by members to include wellness interventions, disease prevention, and case management. In light of the broader range of activities performed, retention of the term ‘disease management’ could be limiting. Furthermore, research conducted during the re-branding process indicated that, although people felt positive about the DMAA itself, there were negative associations with the term ‘disease management’. Thus, the acronym was retained in the new name, while its expansion was dropped. The combination of the old with the new will allow the organization to “… honor that history [as chronic disease care’s leading advocate] and move forward with a renewed commitment to high-quality, populationbased care that enhances lives and combats costly chronic conditions.” she said.

2. Technology: the Way Forward? There was a strong focus on the use of technology in both disease management and in the broader healthcare industry at this year’s meeting. Not only did one of the five tracks of educational sessions focus specifically on this topic, but many interventions presented outside this track featured the application of technology within disease management programs. The keynote and joint sessions also made reference to the application of technological innovation as a means of delivering healthcare for chronic diseases in a system that grows increasingly unable to meet the demands placed on it. A common theme among many of the sessions included in the ‘Leveraging Technology’ track was the electronic recording of patient health data. Examples included information presented on the construction of The Camden Health Database (a relational, comprehensive database that links different sources of patient health data in Camden, New Jersey); the development of an Internet-based Heal