Managed Care Systems and Emerging Infections: Challenges and Opportunities for Strengthening Surveillance, Research, and Prevention

Excerpt

To help inform the debate about the consequences of health care restructuring on infectious disease control and to identify model systems that illustrate best practices, the Forum on Emerging Infections convened a workshop—the subject of this workshop summary—to identify, clarify, and solidify some of the current and potential best practices in managed care with respect to identifying and treating emerging infections. The workshop focused on five major areas of importance to infectious disease control that both shape and are shaped by the changing health care environment: (1) basic and clinical research, (2) clinical practice guidelines, (3) surveillance and monitoring, (4) education and outreach, and (5) drug formularies. Workshop participants outlined many of the challenges to be overcome and identified possible opportunities for addressing obstacles.