A Health Virtual Community for Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

With an aging population, the number of patients presenting with a variety of chronic diseases is increasing. Three of the biggest factors impacting the delivery of healthcare are our aging population, rising labor costs and the complexity of diseases. Patients are living longer, but they have more illnesses to manage. These factors place an additional strain on our healthcare institutions.It is imperative that new methods be employed to control the cost of managing chronic disease. This paper explains the implementation of versatile health Virtual Community for chronic disease management (VC); it describes the functionalities offered for patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The health VC offers patients tools that empowers them to access medically validated treatment and disease management information, track and report on related medical events, invite a member of the healthcare team to virtually communicate, track and monitor patients to ensure treatment and medication adherence, and transition to home care.