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Australia is struggling with the ever‐increasing burden of chronic disease. Over $38 billion per year is spent on care for people with chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. The majority of this funding is dedicated to acute care, and just 9.6% of health care investment supports disease prevention. Perversely, Australia's health system is rewarded for increasing acute care activity (activity‐based funding) to manage disease, which perpetuates inefficient break–fix models of care. The strain on acute care service provision has been accelerated by the COVID‐19 pandemic and Australia's ageing population, and is forecast as unsustainable. Ageing increases total expenditure on hospitalisations, pathology provision, medical imaging, and cost to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. This burden of chronic disease — associated with disability and premature death — is becoming less and less sensitive to further extensions in health care spending on treatment. Prevention is urgently needed; however, dedicated funding, policies and models of preventive care for chronic diseases in communities are minimal, especially for priority populations and high risk social and environmental settings.

This MJA perspective shares more.

Learning Outcomes

1. Explain key components of the perspective
2. List main findings
3. Outline challenges using smartwatches as a tool in chronic disease prevention.

Details

Author: Graeme Mattison, Oliver J Canfell, Doug Forrester, Chelsea Dobbins, Daniel Smith, David Reid and Clair Sullivan

Article Type: Perspective