A new approach to care is transforming the lives of
patients with Parkinson’s disease and has promise for other long term
conditions like COPD and rheumatoid arthritis, according to Dutch researchers
writing in the BMJ.
Evidence suggests it empowers patients, improves the
quality of care, shifts care away from institutions and into the community, and
lowers healthcare costs.
Parkinson’s disease is a common and disabling
neurodegenerative disorder. Most patients live with the disease for many years
and the burden on patients and carers is considerable.
ParkinsonNet
is a model where care is delivered by a network of specially trained
professionals who collaborate through a dedicated online platform to which
patients also have access. It was developed to tackle concerns of insufficient
training for health professionals and poor communication between them and their
patients.
Through
the platform, patients can find information about treatment options and the
trained professionals they need to help them. They are also given the option of
having consultations in their own homes through secure video links.
Since
its introduction in 2004, ParkinsonNet has now expanded to 66 regional networks
and almost 3000 trained experts from 15 different disciplines covering the
whole of the Netherlands.
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