With chronic diseases consuming 90 cents of every healthcare dollar spent in the United States, the focus on how we care for patients has to change.
Eighty percent of chronic disease is driven by lifestyle factors: what people eat, how much they move, the stress they carry, the communities they live in. Treating symptoms without addressing these root causes means people will keep getting sicker, and the cost of their care will keep rising. Health providers must invest in approaches that build stronger relationships with patients and their communities, and that address the conditions driving illness in the first place.
For the millions of Americans managing chronic disease every day, that commitment must be concrete, not theoretical, and must show up in programs designed for patients who need to stay well. We know it’s nearly impossible to manage diabetes without access to healthy food.
So, we built the Nutrition Pathways Program, which has improved blood sugar and blood pressure for thousands of our patients. A patient at one of our hospitals recovering from a brain tumor lost 17 pounds in six weeks through healthy eating and nutritional counseling. He told us: “No more potato chips. If you’ve been through the traumatic stuff I have, I’m lucky to be here.” That is what better care looks like up close.
Prevention also means embracing technology that expands what’s possible. Our bioelectronic medicine researchers discovered that a tiny device placed on the vagus nerve can treat inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis – we’re implanting patients with a neuroimmune modulation device who are experiencing relief from symptoms and reducing the cost burden of managing the disease.
We’re using robotic-assisted technology for total knee replacement, which allows surgeons to tailor each procedure to individual anatomy and improves surgery recovery times, which also lower costs. I can imagine a near future when trained community health workers, equipped with digital tools, stay connected to patients at home rather than waiting for a crisis. Care needs to shift from occasional visits to ongoing, anticipatory support rooted in the community.
These advances – nutritional interventions, bioelectronic medicine, robotics, community-based care – are not isolated innovations. Together, they represent a strategy to reduce the burden of chronic disease on the more than 190 million Americans living with it today. When prevention works, the cost of care comes down. When communities are healthier, demand for expensive interventions falls.
The path forward is clear, even if it isn’t easy. Chronic disease will not be tamed by any single breakthrough. It will be tamed by a sustained, systemwide commitment to prevention – investing in food, technology, relationships and community before a patient ever needs a hospital bed. Every health system, payer and policymaker should be asking the same question we ask ourselves: are we doing everything we can to keep people healthy before they need us? That is where the opportunity is. And that is where we intend to lead.
John D’Angelo, MD, is president and CEO of New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health.
