Medical Care, Education, Social Support, And Goal-setting to Empower Self-management for Diabetes

Overview

Diabetes group visits, shared appointments where patients receive self-management education in a group setting and have a medical visit, are a promising way to deliver high quality diabetes care. Group visits can improve glycemic control and decrease healthcare utilization. To date, no studies have systematically implemented a diabetes group visit intervention in a network of U.S. community health centers. The University of Chicago is partnering with Midwest Clinicians' Network (MWCN), a member organization of 130 health centers across ten Midwestern states. Approximately half of all Federally Qualified Health Centers in this region are affiliated with MWCN. The objectives of the study are \[1\] providers and staff at 20 health centers will have the requisite knowledge, skills, and motivation to implement a diabetes group visit plus text messaging intervention at their sites; \[2\] changes in diabetes processes of care; knowledge, attitudes, and skills for diabetes self-management; clinical outcomes; and health care utilization for patients participating in the diabetes group visit program will be evaluated; and \[3\] the diabetes group visit program will be available for dissemination among and use by health centers and healthcare providers at the local, state, regional, and national levels.

UChicago and MWCN will recruit and enroll 20 health centers (HCs) to participate in a training intervention and to implement diabetes group visit and text messaging programs at their clinic sites. Each HC will assemble a team of 3-4 providers and staff to participate in the training. HCs will be randomized to one of two training cohorts. HC providers and staff will attend two in-person Learning Sessions in Chicago and a series of monthly webinars, recruit and enroll patients, implement a 6-month diabetes group visit and text messaging program plus subsequent booster sessions, complete periodic surveys and interviews, assist with data collection through patient surveys and chart abstraction, and present their program to peer HCs during Learning Sessions and to local stakeholders, state primary care organizations, or other professional groups. Each HC will enroll 15 patients in the group visit and text messaging program; the 2018 Training Cohort will do so immediately following their enrollment in the study and the 2020 Training Cohort will do so after 18 months. During the first 18 months, the 2020 Training Cohort will collect data from electronic health records (EHR) of randomly selected patients to serve as a control group. Changes in self-reported outcomes, diabetes processes of care, and clinical outcomes will be assessed for intervention patients from baseline through 2 year follow up, and processes of care and clinical outcomes will be compared for intervention vs. control participants. Capacity of HC providers and staff to conduct a group visit and text messaging intervention for patients with diabetes, as well as their confidence in identifying and addressing health disparities, will be evaluated through surveys and in-depth interviews. This study will expand knowledge of the barriers, facilitators, and perceived benefits and drawbacks of group visit and text messaging interventions and inform the development of a toolkit that will be disseminated to other HCs.