Health Care

Study #276 - Consumer Driven Health Care: The Changing Role of the Patient

The latest trend in health care? Patients are managing their own care. New technologies make it possible. Legislative changes facilitate it. And financial pressures all but require it.

Nearly half of Americans (45 percent) have some type of chronic condition. Patients with chronic diseases can manage their conditions and control their health care in ways unheard of only a few decades ago. For example, patients with diabetes can be trained to inject insulin, monitor and maintain a log of blood glucose levels, and use the results to adjust their dietary intake, activity levels and medicine doses.