SAN FRANCISCO — The American College of Physicians and the American College of Physicians Foundation have begun a major 3-year initiative to improve diabetes care in the United States.
The initiative, announced at a press briefing during the annual meeting of the ACP, is aimed not only at physicians, but also at the entire diabetes management team, including subspecialists, physician assistants, diabetes educators, nurses, office staff, and the patients themselves.
Of the 18.2 million Americans with diabetes, 5.2 million are undiagnosed, according to information distributed at the briefing.
Novo Nordisk, the Denmark-based pharmaceutical company that first commercialized insulin, has funded the initiative with an unrestricted educational grant of $9.27 million.
“We believe this intensive 3-year project, combining an emphasis on highest standards of care, measurable goals for practice in office settings, and research, can dramatically improve diabetes care,” Charles K. Francis, M.D., president of the ACP said in a statement.
Some of the educational programs and materials will be available to the medical profession in general, while others will be limited to ACP members.
Vincenza Snow, M.D., the ACP's director of clinical programs, said that the project has three goals: to increase physician awareness of high-quality diabetes care and the gap between current practice and acceptable standards, to provide proven educational interventions for improving care to the entire diabetes team, and to recognize physicians and physician practices that make demonstrable improvements in the care of patients with diabetes.
“Knowledge is necessary but not sufficient for change,” Dr. Snow said, noting that all internists have extensive training in diabetes care.
“It's not necessarily that our members don't know what to do. We need to empower them to do that in their real-life practices. What has been shown is that multifaceted and multi-intervention educational programs are what works. You have to hit people over the head many, many times in many different ways to make sure that new things are implemented and that they don't disappear once the intervention goes away.”
The initiative was inaugurated at the ACP annual meeting with a diabetes track consisting of 16 workshops and courses. This track will be a feature of future annual meetings, and clinical skills modules will be offered at local chapter meetings.
Other parts of the program will be introduced at a rapid pace, Dr. Snow said. For example, enhanced diabetes information will become part of the ACP's Web-based point-of-care decision support tool, Physicians' Information and Education Resource (PIER); the medical knowledge self-assessment program (MKSAP); and the college's Web site (www.acponline.org
Versions of MKSAP will be developed for nonphysician members of the diabetes management team.
And ACP will develop a self-management tool kit to help patients become working partners with their health care providers in diabetes care. These materials, available in both English and Spanish, will include versions intended for patients whose literacy is at the third- or fourth-grade level.
Additionally, ACP will develop a Web portal collecting all of its diabetes information in one place, offering clinical decision support, CME credit, and the latest research in diabetes care.
“Beating diabetes is our passion, not just our business,” said Alan C. Moses, M.D., vice president of medical affairs for Novo Nordisk. “We try to distinguish ourselves from other companies by acting in accordance with our triple-bottom-line principle, [which] emphasizes a commitment not only to the economic success of the business, but just as importantly, to environmental soundness and social responsibility.”
The initiative will include a research component that will assess measurable outcomes as the project progresses.
“I hope that 3 years from now we'll be here again talking about the positive results of the project and the real changes that have occurred in diabetes care,” Dr. Francis said.