New Interactive Tool Shows the Chronic Conditions Affecting Majority of U.S. Adults, Costing Nearly $4 Trillion

Nearly half of all Americans, including six-in-ten adults, live with a chronic disease - costing the country an estimated $3.7 trillion in direct and indirect costs as well as lost productivity. The problem is expected to keep growing in the years ahead. It impacts every area of the country, but some are worse off than others.

Now, a new interactive tool from CloudMedx is showing health officials, government leaders, and citizens the degree to which chronic conditions are hurting their communities. Using unprecedented technology, it also allows organizations to determine how their actions can help shape better outcomes.

The Chronic Conditions Explorer (CCE) lets users zoom into any county to discover information, including which neighborhoods are hotspots for which illnesses. It shows the percentage of the population that has any of a long list of conditions, from COPD to kidney disease, diabetes, heart failure and more.

The tool also shows emergency room admission rates; per capita costs of these illnesses; numbers of uninsured, and much more. It analyzes how much access patients have to pharmacies, hospitals, and specialists. It tabulates economic factors such as unemployment, poverty, and income inequality that may be exacerbating health and inequality in various neighborhoods. And it displays social determinants of health (SDOH) such as food insecurity, housing, and internet availability.

Combining information that is regularly updated from a large number of sources representing all 50 states, 3000 counties, and numerous hospitals using unique algorithms, the CCE delivers the most holistic look at the state of chronic conditions in America, instantly presenting crucial information in an easy-to-view, intuitive way. In addition, the CCE recommends best practices to help combat disease at local and regional levels.

For healthcare decision makers, the explorer incorporates privately held data, compounding insights by factoring in patient registries, geographies, timelines and more, giving them a richer and deeper understanding of the populations they serve. "The CCE assists healthcare stakeholders in their decision making process, allowing them to predict patient loads for various diseases, calculate costs, and determine the course of action that will deliver the best possible care at the best price," says Tashfeen Suleman, CEO and cofounder of CloudMedx.