Eat right. Exercise. Monitor blood sugar. Take medication regularly. This is the advice physicians give the more than 20 million Americans affected with diabetes. Yet implementation of these recommendations is often far from ideal, putting patients at greater risk for damage to the heart, kidneys, eyes and feet.
In an effort to improve diabetes care, the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American College of Physicians Foundation have created three practical tools for practicing internists who are ACP members, other health care professionals on clinical practice teams and their patients.
These comprehensive educational tools are the culmination of an ambitious three-year Diabetes Initiative funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Novo Nordisk.
"The goal of providing these resources," said Vincenza Snow, M.D., FACP, Director, Clinical Programs and Quality of Care at ACP, "is to increase awareness of the gap between current practice and acceptable standards of diabetes care."
The following materials are designed to help physicians and their staff to implement team-based care strategies, provide them with practical tools and motivate patients to implement lifestyle changes and self-management techniques:
• "Living With Diabetes: An Everyday Guide for You and Your Family" is an innovative model for patient education and empowerment. This self-management guide for patients covers diet, exercise, monitoring blood sugar, insulin and other medications. Available with text in English or Spanish, "Living With Diabetes" is written in a conversational tone at a fifth-grade reading level and gives practical tips and concrete examples of successful approaches to control diabetes. Patients can get a copy of "Living With Diabetes" from their ACP-member internist.
• The "ACP Diabetes Care Guide" for physicians and practice teams is intended to be used by multidisciplinary teams providing care to patients with diabetes. It has two components: a printed practice manual (including special tools for better management of practice and patients) and a CD-ROM containing electronic versions of the manual and tools, and 81 multiple-choice questions, answers and critiques.
New practical tools from the American College of Physicians are designed to help patients and their doctors improve diabetes care.
A new Web site has been designed to help patients with diabetes and their doctors.
• The Diabetes Portal (http://diabetes.acponline.org) is a free Web-based resource for physicians and patients that provides tools, resources and research supporting diabetes care. Patients and clinicians can access information specific to their needs.
Both "Living With Diabetes" and the "ACP Diabetes Care Guide" can be ordered at http://diabetes.acponline.org and are free to ACP members.
