Role of Care Manager in Chronic Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are an important public health problem, affecting especially people over 65 years. The significant change in the structure of the population, with the progressive increase of the elderly, determined a major incidence of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases require a regular monitoring of clinical parameters in order to control the natural evolution of the pathology and to make appropriate therapeutic measures. For this reason, it’s important that the patient has an adequate knowledge and involvement in the management of the disease, in order to improve clinical outcomes and reduce hospitalizations. Some studies in scientific literature demonstrated the efficacy and utility of a multi-specialized team that follow the patient in the natural history of chronic disease. These studies noted the improvement of clinical parameters and better adherence to medical therapy in patients joined by the care manager. The care manager is a sort of bridge between patients, general practitioners and other specialist. He assists the patient individually, helping him to adopt behaviors and lifestyles suitable to his health condition, and encouraging greater self-sufficiency in the monitoring of clinical parameters. The aim of present work is to provide a review of the scientific literature regarding the effectiveness of the introduction of care managers in the setting of clinical practice.