Abstrakt
I read with great interest the article by Tanumihardjo et al., "New Frontiers in Diabetes Care: Quality Improvement Study of a Population Health Team in Rural Critical Access Hospitals" published online in this journal. The study attempts to determine if an innovative population health program that integrates medical and social care models improves clinical outcomes for patients with type 2 diabetes in a resource-constrained, frontier area.
During the study, mean HbA1c of fully intervened patients significantly decreased from baseline to 12 months (7.9 to 7.6%, p < 0.01) and sustained reductions at 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, and 36 months. The authors concluded that the health program was associated with improved hemoglobin A1c among less well-controlled patients with diabetes.