IT, Patient-Centered Research Key to Pushing Disease Prevention Efforts

Information technology will be crucial to pushing disease prevention efforts in healthcare, according to a recent viewpoint published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A "widespread uptake" of personalized health technology, the researchers say, is needed to "reduce the burden" of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer or diabetes. For that to occur, they say, a framework that encourages basic technology use is necessary.

"Investing in prevention should be a strategic national priority to help improve the lagging population of the United States compared with peer countries," say authors Derek Yach of the New York-based Vitality Institute and Chris Calitz of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. "Increasing federal funding for prevention science and fostering stronger public-private partnerships are important steps toward providing policy makers with evidence-based tools to use limited resources effectively and efficiently."

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Source: Fierce HealthIT