DMAA Releases First Ever Dictionary For Disease Management And Guide For Program Assessment

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Disease Management Association of America (DMAA), the premier association representing stakeholders in the disease management (DM) community, will release the new Dictionary of Disease Management Terminology and its companion volume, Disease Management Program Evaluation Guide.

The Dictionary’s 250 page four-part format includes brief glossary definitions of more than 125 DM terms and in-depth definitions of approximately 45 frequently-used DM terms. The convenient Crosswalk (At-A- Glance) compares DMAA’s brief definitions to the definitions of other organizations accreditation organizations (NCQA, JCAHO, and URAC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). In addition, the Bibliography offers approximately 100 highly-relevant resources from the fields of actuarial science, epidemiology, health economics, health services research and statistics.

“The new DMAA Dictionary of Disease Management Terminology is the first lexicon for the Disease Management community,” says Warren Todd, Executive Director of DMAA. He adds, “Its companion volume, the Guide begins with the DMAA Outcomes Steering Committee Consensus Statement and provides authoritative information on how to think about evaluation of DM program outcomes.” The Guide also presents recommended principles for robust evaluation in an easy to understand question and answer format.

“One of the most valuable tools offered by this Guide is an evaluation checklist. The checklist defines key decision points and issues involved in the evaluation of these programs. This checklist can also be used to compare different evaluative approaches,” says Dr. Jaan Sidorov, Medical Director for Care Coordination, Geisinger Health Plan and Chair of the DMAA Quality and Research Committee.

Dr. Donald Fetterolf, Vice President & Senior Medical Officer, Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and co-chair of the Outcomes Steering Committee, states: “these two texts will broaden overall knowledge of DM and further DMAA’s mission of educating the public on the positive outcomes DM programs produce for chronically ill populations.” Says Karen Fitzner, DMAA’s Director of Research and Program Development, “The two volumes together provide an unequalled resource on what to measure and how to measure it.”

The dictionary team consisted of over forty experts in different aspects of disease management. Led by Ian Duncan, FSA, Partner, Lotter Actuarial Partners, and workgroup Co-Chairs Sally Duran, MSHA, CPQH, Senior Vice President, Quality Improvement, Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc., and Susan Jennings, PhD, Senior Director, Pfizer Health Solutions, the team completed the drafting and approval of this ground-breaking volume in record time.

For more information contact Karen Fitzner, DMAA Director of Research and Program Development at kfitzner@dmaa.org or 202-778-3297.

DMAA is a nonprofit, voluntary membership organization, which represents all stakeholders of the disease management community. For more information, please visit http://www.dmaa.org/, email us at dmaa@dmaa.org or call (202) 861- 1490.

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CONTACT: Karen Fitzner, Director Research & Program Development, ofDisease Management Association of America, +1-202-778-3297, orkfitzner@dmaa.org