The American Medical Group Association Foundation has launched a national campaign, Diabetes: Together 2 Goal, challenging healthcare organizations to improve diabetes care by empowering patients and leveraging information technology.
The three-year initiative aims to improve management of Type 2 diabetes for 1 million people in the United States and is the second campaign in the AMGA Foundation’s Chronic Care Challenge. In the Measure Up/Pressure Down campaign, nearly 150 AMGA members worked together to improve blood pressure detection or control for more than half a million Americans.
According to an AMGA press release, to date, over 100 AMGA members have committed to implementing at least one of the “campaign planks”—11 evidence-based care processes—that will improve the care of people with the condition by empowering patients, improving care delivery, and leveraging information technology. “Additionally, campaign participants will report data on a quarterly basis to measure progress towards this goal and utilize the campaign’s resources and tools to achieve this mark,” AMGA stated.
In order to empower patients, the evidence-based care processes include building an accountable diabetes team, integrating emotional and behavioral support and referring patients to diabetes self-management education and support programs. To improve care delivery, healthcare organizations are encouraged to conduct practice-based screening, adopt a treatment algorithm, measure HbA1C every three to six months, assess and address risk of cardiovascular disease and contact patients not at goal and with therapy change within 30 days.
The three “planks” that will help guide healthcare organizations to betterleverage information technology include using a patient registry, embedding point-of-care tools and publishing transparent internal reports.
“We are proud to launch our second campaign and build upon the hard work that our members are doing to address the nation’s most pressing chronic conditions,” Donald Fisher, president and CEO of AMGA and Secretary of the Board of AMGA Foundation. “We strongly believe that over the next three years and with the dedication and commitment of some of the largest and most prestigious health care systems in the country, we will see improved care among people with Type 2 diabetes and set them on a better path to live longer, healthier lives.”
