Teaching residents chronic disease management using the Flinders model.

Chronic disease is the most prevalent problem in health care today. It is the most common cause of disability and consumes 78% of health expenditures.1 Caring for patients with chronic disease is very different from caring for acutely ill patients, yet it is not a prominent part of undergraduate medical education.2 Current medical education in chronic illness care does not adequately emphasize patient self-management, supportive care, health promotion and disease prevention, and the integration of multidisciplinary care providers in a partnership (patient and provider).3 A recent survey of more than 1200 U.S. physicians4 revealed that most physicians reported less than adequate chronic disease training in all the competencies important in chronic care management. One direct result of these data has been the American Association of Medical College’s (AAMC’s) Academic Chronic Care Collaborative (ACCC). This project has identified 22 health care organizations nationwide and charged these organizations with developing health care delivery systems integrating graduate medical education with the development of effective chronic disease care models. Chronic disease care requires that the physician and the patient assume different roles than in an acute disease model.2 Multidisciplinary collaborative teams that include care providers, patient and family, care managers, educators, community services’ staff, and social workers and provide evidence-based medical management are needed to provide effective chronic disease care.5 Patients who are good selfmanagers achieve better outcomes.6,7 Physicians who practice patient-centered care and promote patient self-management also improve patient outcomes.8 Self-management is defined as involving “[the person with the chronic disease] engaging in activities that protect and promote health, monitoring and managing symptoms and signs of illness, managing the impacts of illness on functioning, emotions and interpersonal relationships and adhering to treatment regimens.”9 Self-management training for patients using the Stanford Model developed by Lorig10 has been in use for more than 20 years and works well within the present traditional doctor/patient relationship. Recently a chronic disease management model, the Flinders Model, has been developed that both changes the doctor/patient relationship as well as the roles of both the patient and the caregiver. The Flinders Model of chronic disease management11,12 is a patient-centered care model developed by Dr. Malcolm Battersby and associates at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. The Flinders Model provides the care provider, be it physician, case manager, nurse, physical therapist, or physician’s assistant, a new and different role in the management of chronic disease. It creates a partnership between physician/caregiver and patient, in which the patient is the decision maker and the health care provider is facilitator, coach, and advisor. This assessment and care planning approach is generic (i.e., can be applied to any chronic condition and more than one condition in the same patient). The Flinders Model is based on 6 principles for self-management: (1) have knowledge of your condition, (2) follow a treatment plan (care plan) agreed with by your health professionals, (3) actively share in decision making with your health professionals, (4) monitor and manage signs and symptoms of your condition, (5) manage the impact of the condition on your physical, emotional, and social life, and (6) adopt lifestyles that promote health. The Flinders process begins with a self-assessment questionnaire, the Partners in Health scale10 filled out by the patient assessing his or her self-management skills. The patient scores him or herself on a 0-8 Likert scale on each of