Integrating Non-Communicable Disease Care: OCPI Work-In-Progress Sessions

 

Well-known for actively engaging Washington, D.C., and the world, the George Washington University, the largest institution of higher education in the District of Columbia, is striving to provide an environment where knowledge is created and acquired and where creative endeavors seek to enrich the experiences of the global society, by looking at the world beyond the classroom, and preparing the next generation of leaders. With its location in the heart of Washington, the George Washington University is sitting where the worlds of science, technology, media and the arts converge (http://www.gwu.edu/gw-overview). Its Office for Clinical Practice Innovation (OCPI; Director, Jesse Pines, a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy), for example, is dedicated to promoting new health-related research initiatives, dissemination, and implementation of novel methods to organize and deliver medical care, including research initiatives, clinical practice innovation, and other initiatives that leverage GW’s research and clinical infrastructure (https://smhs.gwu.ed u/clinicalinnovation/).

OCPI has recently launched the invitation (https://smhs.gwu.edu/clinicalinnovation/events/non-communicable-diseases-integrated-care-and-health-policy) to its upcoming “work-in-progress” session for its ongoing projects, session that will feature Eliot Sorel (Speaker), MD, Senior Scholar in the Office of Clinical Practice Innovations and Clinical Professor of both Global Health, Health Policy & Management and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences  – Eliot Sorel being the lead physician teaching Global Delivery – Health Systems and Global Mental Health. According to OCPI’s announcement:

▪ cardiovascular and mental disorders: lead in the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and frequently present as comorbid conditions. 50% of mental disorders exist by age 14 and 75 % by age 24; account for 30-45 % of the global burden of disability resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars in negative economic consequences for low-, middle- and high-income countries;

▪ most mental disorders are attended to in primary care and the rest in mental health systems. The severely and persistently mental ill frequently develop comorbid conditions such as cardiovascular disorders and diabetes, generally not well attended to, and thus die 20-25 years younger than the general population. Current health systems fragmentation and lack of systems integration significantly impact patients suffering from comorbid NCDs across the world;

▪ the author presents clinical public health data of the NCDs comorbidity research project completed recently with a focus on China, India, Iran and Romania. Implications for primary care, mental health, and public health integration, with a focus, on collaborative and integrated care, are addressed for enhancing health systems performance and populations’ health. Relevant contemporary health policy is then addressed in the US context.