HB Bosworth et al. Patient self-management support: novel strategies in hypertension and heart disease. Cardiology Clinics, 2010; 28:655-663.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have become the leading cause of death and disability in most countries in the world. Bosworth and colleagues pointed out how patient self-management is a crucial component of effective high-quality health care for hypertension and CVD. The patient must be a collaborator in this process, and methods of improving patients' ability and confidence for self-management are needed. Successful self-management programs have often supplemented the traditional patient-physician encounter by using nonphysician providers, remote patient encounters (telephone or Internet), group settings, and peer support for promoting self-management. Several factors need to be considered in self-management. Given the health care system's inability to achieve several quality indicators using traditional office-based physician visits, further consideration is needed to determine the degree to which these interventions and programs can be integrated into primary care, their effectiveness in different groups, and their sustainability for improving chronic disease care.

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU AS A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER: Patients must be taught to manage most of the processes required to control their health disease. Fortunately, organizations such as the American Heart Association have ample educational materials that can be used in putting together an effective self-management program.

WHAT THE STUDY MAY MEAN TO YOU AS A HEALTH CARE CONSUMER: Press your health care providers to refer you to a self-management program for your condition. If a program is unavailable where you live, contact the American Heart Association to see if they will sponsor such a self-management program for you and others with hypertension or heart failure.