Chronic Disease Costing Americans $1.3 Trillion Yearly

(NewsUSA) - As chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart disease and stroke continue to plague the health of Americans everywhere, the resulting health costs are impacting the economy in a big way -; to the tune of more than $1 trillion each year.

A recent study, released by independent economic group The Milken Institute, stated that the most common chronic medical conditions are responsible for costing the American economy $1.3 trillion annually. The study goes on to say that if costs continue to increase as expected, the economic impact may reach as high as $6 trillion per year by the middle of the century.

While these numbers are staggeringly negative, there is good news -; some of these costs may, in fact, be avoidable.

“Chronic diseases, especially heart failure, will affect an increasing number of Americans in the foreseeable future,” said John Russell, vice president and general manager of patient management at Boston Scientific’s Cardiac Rhythm Management Group. “But heart failure, in particular, can often be successfully managed.”

Nearly 22 million people worldwide, including approximately 5.5 million Americans, currently suffer from heart failure, and heart disease is the leading cause of hospitalization for those aged 65 or older. Emergency room fees and other critical hospital costs accrued as a result of heart failure hospitalization are two of the major reasons for increasing economic concerns.

Luckily, an increasing number of heart failure patients are receiving an implanted defibrillator device to help treat their problem. For these patients, symptoms can be tracked daily via wireless technology. Boston Scientific’s LATITUDE Patient Management system, for example, was the first product approved by the Food and Drug Administration for such wireless home monitoring of medical devices.

The LATITUDE system can detect clinical events between scheduled follow-up visits and then send the clinical event data directly to physicians. This enables physicians to intervene earlier in a patient’s care, which can help to lower overall economic costs by preventing potential emergency hospitalization.

“Catching rapidly deteriorating health symptoms in chronic disease before it becomes an emergency situation can not only help save lives, but also health care dollars,” Russell said.

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