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Practice Gap and Educational Need
Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions and incidence will likely continue
to increase due to an aging population, improved detection, decreasing mortality,
and growth in minority populations with a higher incidence of the disease. According
to the CDC, 23.6 million Americans suffer from diabetes, with an additional 57
million with pre-diabetes (CDC National Diabetes Fact Sheet 2007). Annual direct
and indirect costs associated with diabetes in the US are estimated to reach $174 billion.
Self-management behavior and patient adherence to therapy: Effective self-management
behavior by patients with diabetes can reduce the risk of mortality and co-morbidities,
as well as overall healthcare costs. Self-management strategies include lifestyle
changes (diet and exercise) and the use of medications to maintain blood glucose
control. Patient adherence requires significant behavioral alterations that can
impact quality of life. Many patients with diabetes remain reluctant to adopt
self-management behaviors due to a number of barriers, and healthcare providers
are seldom equipped to identify and address these barriers during brief office visits.
The healthcare provider's role: Evidence demonstrates a strong association between
adherence to treatment and communication between the healthcare provider and patient.
Healthcare providers must develop effective communication skills to better understand
the barriers impacting patient adherence. By understanding and addressing these
barriers, providers will be able to promote effective self-management behaviors for
patients to better meet their treatment goals.
Unique Educational Format
This national series of dynamic, highly interactive, evidence-based workshops is
designed to enhance knowledge, skills and competencies to overcome barriers to
treatment adherence in patients with Type II diabetes. These workshops will help
participants and their practices improve communication with patients and better
manage complex disease issues by enabling their patients to adopt effective self-management
behaviors and achieve treatment goals. Once mastered, these skills and competences will
be helpful in the management of patients with other chronic diseases.
Based upon the feedback from the first two workshops, participants reported:
- An enhanced ability to identify their patients with type 2 diabetes who fail to adhere
- Increase in their awareness of clinical tools to facilitate a collaborative approach to management of type 2 diabetes
- Significant increase in their confidence and ability to assess patients’ beliefs and values about type 2 diabetes
- and 98% of participants would recommend this program
The live workshops will consist of short evidence-based presentations by national and
local experts followed by several small-group breakout sessions. During each session,
participants will have an opportunity to work directly with professional standardized
patients who will depict various clinical case scenarios, including:
- Patients who are reluctant, frightened, depressed or resistant to care
- Culturally diverse minorities
- Adolescent patients
- Patients with varying socioeconomic barriers
The standardized patients will allow participants to integrate innovative humanistic training
with traditional medical education in order to develop and practice communication skills.
Diabetes experts will act as facilitators and guide participants through each case during
this small-group hands-on experience.
Clinical support tools will be provided to enable the immediate use of newly-acquired
skills and competencies in a variety of primary care practice settings.
Development Team: This unique and multifaceted program is made possible by the collaboration
of expertise from multiple organizations. The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
is proud to sponsor this program and provide CME accreditation. The professional standardized
patients will be provided by the Penn Med Standardized Patients Program. Spectrum Medical
Education and Vemco MedEd offer instructional design expertise and project management
support. A leader in outcomes assessment, AXDEV Group provides expertise in formative and
summative evaluation of program effectiveness and impact on patient care.
Target Audience
"Talking Diabetes with Your Patients: Practical Strategies for Overcoming Barriers", an
interactive workshop incorporating the use of standardized patients, has been designed for
healthcare providers in the primary care setting involved in the management of patients
with Type II diabetes. These workshops are specifically designed for healthcare providers
who are not experts in diabetes care and have limited access to these experts. Healthcare
providers may include physicians in general practice, family medicine, and internal
medicine, as well as nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Due to the unique nature of these workshops, space is limited to 50 participants per 4-hour
session. Preference will be given to interprofessional teams of 2-3 healthcare providers
from a single practice.
Program Assessment
The ultimate goal of this educational series is to improve the care of patients with
diabetes, specifically by developing skills and competencies in provider-patient
communication. An in-depth outcomes assessment will provide information on how this
activity enhanced treatment adherence and overall management of patients with diabetes.
More…
Part of what makes this program unique is your opportunity and the opportunity for
your patients to influence its direction by participating in the evaluation of the
program. Share your experience! For more information click
here.
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