A systems approach to the evaluation of a disease management program

The goal of disease management (DM) is to improve outcomes while optimizing the overall use of health care resources. However, few published studies have formally evaluated how well a DM program meets that goal. This paper provides a systems model for evaluating DM programs from the perspective of the health care plan. The proposed evaluation model has seven steps: adopting a systems perspective; establishing a framework for evaluation; identifying key structures, processes, and outcomes; developing specific performance measures; collecting, processing, modeling, and analyzing performance measurement data; making comparisons to criteria, standards, and goals; and, finally, conducting a formal evaluation of how well the DM program has met its objectives.