Not enough is being done to maintain or enhance the quality of life for Americans with chronic illness as an epidemic of chronic illness heads toward crisis proportions, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine.

The report, Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action, makes 17 recommendations, including one that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention select a variety of illnesses for special consideration using a process that emphasizes chronic illnesses with cross-cutting clinical, functional and social implications that affect individuals with the disease. While not recommending they be the focus, the report highlights nine exemplar diseases that might fit those criteria, according to an IOM brief on the report. They are arthritis, cancer survivorship, chronic pain, dementia, depression, type 2 diabetes, post-traumatic disabling conditions, schizophrenia, and vision and hearing loss.

The authors of the IOM report also wrote in the brief that evidence-based interventions aimed at preventing chronic disease be studied for effectiveness, that enhanced collaboration among the public health, healthcare and community non-healthcare sectors is needed and new public policies are needed and should be explored.