Researching multimorbidity in hospital: can we deliver on the promise of health informatics?
Miles D. Witham, Rachel Cooper, Paolo Missier, Siân Robinson, Elizabeth Sapey, Avan Aihie Sayer
Abstract
Multimorbidity (sometimes referred to as multiple long-term conditions; MLTC) refers to the coexistence of two or more chronic health conditions and has been described as posing one of the greatest challenges to medicine and science in the twenty-first century [1].There are many conditions that modern medicine cannot cure, and until this changes, conditions will accumulate across the life course with older people facing the highest burden of multimorbidity [2,3].The prognosis of people with multimorbidity is considerably worse than prognosis of people with single conditions, especially if the set of conditions a person is living with includes mental health conditions [4].A higher burden of symptoms and care, a greater chance of functional decline and worse quality of life are all consequences of multimorbidity [5].These problems are compounded by a plethora of clinical guidelines that focus on the diagnosis and management of single conditions in isolation [6,7].This is particularly true for hospital-based care.Many components of hospital care are not designed or equipped