Enhancing clinical service design for multimorbidity management: A comprehensive approach to joined-up care for diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and heart failure.

Abstract

Background and aims: Multimorbidity is becoming the norm rather than the exception, especially among the ageing population and people with lower socio-economic status. In addition to the rising healthcare cost, multimorbidity poses considerable difficulty in the delivery of adequate holistic care for affected patients.

Methods: This review presents a discussion of the current barriers to delivering holistic care to people with multimorbidity and proposes a model of clinical care for people living with cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome as an exemplar of a multimorbidity cluster.

Results: Single organ/disease services may not be able to provide optimum care to people with multimorbidity due to the potential complex interactions between multiple disease symptoms and management. In addition, people with multimorbidity may be required to attend multiple appointments in different healthcare centres. This may negatively impact access to services due to time and financial burden. Other barriers include co-ordinating communication between healthcare professionals and reduced continuity of care. Optimising CKM health requires patient-centred care led by an interdisciplinary care team who ideally should possess CKM competencies utilising a shared care protocol to coordinate evidence-based care and use of telehealth to empower patients. Stakeholders and policymakers need to adapt new policy models to establish and enhance CKM care models by allocating funds and implementing frameworks for educational reforms.

Conclusions: A CKM service has the potential to increase the uptake of cardiac and renal protective medications as well as optimising metabolic care, increase capacity in both primary and secondary care, improve quality of life and clinical outcomes, reduce patient inconvenience, and importantly allow rapid translation of advances in cardiorenal metabolic diseases into clinical practice.