Including chronic disease in health-provider guidelines

21 May 2019
Sarah Clarke

Including chronic disease in health-provider guidelines

We have been supporting the Practical Approach to Care Kit (PACK), an initiative of the University of Cape Town. PACK links curative and preventative approaches to improve quality of care and patient-health outcomes in the primary care setting and is highly valued by clinicians in resource-challenged settings. We ensured that evidence-based messaging about chronic disease and healthy behaviours was included. This helps health professionals become healthy lives champions by promoting chronic disease prevention with their patients and communities.

A cost-effectiveness modelling study published in the Lancet Global Health shows that PACK’s South Africa programme can improve access to care for chronic diseases, save government money and is cheaper than using World Health Organization guidelines.

To date PACK has 42 guide editions, over 185,000 guides distributed, and 30,000 health workers trained.