Health

Intense multipronged diabetes management program can improve outcomes

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted April 19, 2004

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Improving patient and physician access to diabetes education and having doctors involved in data collection and quality issues betters blood sugar control, blood pressure and cholesterol management, according to a paper published in the April issue of Clinical Diabetes.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center followed 15,000 patients presenting to primary care physicians after the launch of the Focus on Diabetes initiative in 2000. As a part of this initiative, physicians were educated about the American Diabetes Assn.'s Standards of Care and were ranked based on the average A1C scores of all their diabetic patients. Patient access to diabetes educators was also increased.

At the end of two years, the average A1C of patients was lowered from 8% to 6.87%.

"Because the traditional health care system is designed to provide a symptom-driven response to acute illnesses, it is poorly configured to meet the needs of the chronically ill," said Linda Siminerio, PhD, lead author and executive director of the Diabetes Institute. "Although it may take years to see significant impacts on micro- and macro-vascular disease, our results would lead us to believe our patients have been best served by these ongoing quality efforts."

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/04/19/hlbf0419.htm.

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