Disease Management Initiatives

Two major drug companies, Hoechst Roussel and Zeneca, have announced new disease management programs in the UK and USA, respectively.

Zeneca, through its US subsidiary Stuart Disease Management Services Inc, said it will provide disease management services for the treatment of congestive heart failure for Sanus Corp Health Systems, the managed care subsidiary of New York Life Insurance Company.

The SDMS program will include: strategies for disease prevention and early intervention; physician and patient education programs; compliance monitoring and education; drug formulary recommendations; and outcome assessment. Initially, SDMS and Sanus will collaborate on a pilot CHF management program at participating primary care facilities on Long Island, USA. Expansion into greater New York, New Jersey, Texas and Washington DC will follow. By end-1996, the disease management program will be available to more than 1 million members of Sanus.