APhA’s diabetes challenge shows promising results

WASHINGTON A lengthy and broad-ranging pilot project to test the effectiveness of diabetes care initiatives by pharmacists allied with other healthcare professionals is yielding positive results among patients enrolled in the program, new data show.

Reporting on the initial results of its so-called Diabetes 10 City Challenge, the American Pharmacists Association Foundation cited “improved patient health across key clinical and diabetes care indicators” as a result of pharmacist interventions and other collaborative efforts.

The 10 City Challenge is an employer-based diabetes self-management program conducted by APhA Foundation with support from GlaxoSmithKline.  Since it was launched in October 2005, 31 employers in ten cities have joined forces with hundreds of pharmacists to help more than 1,000 people manage their diabetes.

The interim results of the years-long project appear in the March/April issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. They show a positive trend in controlling diabetes, according to APhA, including “documented clinical improvements in all the recognized standards for diabetes care.”

Among the results were decreases in blood sugar, LDL cholesterol and blood pressure levels; increases in the number of participants who keep current on influenza vaccinations, foot examinations and eye examinations; and a 21 percent rise in the number of participants who achieve American Diabetes Association goals for hemoglobin A1C results.

In addition, the report stated, more than 97 percent of patients who participate in the 10 City Challenge report being “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the diabetes care provided by pharmacists.

 “The results to date prove that this collaborative-practice model is effective for managing diabetes and replicable in diverse locations and employers,” said William Ellis, chief executive officer of the APhA Foundation and co-author of the peer-reviewed interim data article. “In years of experience with this model we have seen that when you have positive clinical outcomes and increased patient satisfaction in the early stages, the economic benefits follow.” 

The final 10 City Challenge report, due out in 2009, will include cost-savings data for the employers who participated.