Joint Disease Management Ventures in the UK

Abstract

A postal questionnaire was sent out to individuals in the National Health Service (NHS) and in the pharmaceutical industry known to be involved in joint disease management ventures, details of which were available in the public domain. The questionnaire was designed to uncover information about the roles played by the partners in the venture, the disease areas covered and the use of guidelines. Of the 25 joint disease management questionnaires sent out, 14 responses were received, giving a response rate of 56%. The ventures covered a range of diseases, but concentrated on respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Three of the projects were concerned with sexual health. The pharmaceutical industry acted in an enabling role in all these projects, offering support in the areas of finance, research, and communication and information technology expertise. In no case did a pharmaceutical company both provide and finance care directly. This is the only case known to the authors of an attempt to collate information on joint disease management ventures in the NHS. However, it should be noted that the results presented in this paper cover only one quarter to one half of all the current NHS joint venture activity.