AMA and CDC launch new physician practice tools/resources

Eighty-six million American adults have prediabetes, which means it is likely that you have patients with this common but treatable condition. To help these patients and improve outcomes for your practice, without adding burden to your workflow, you can take advantage of new physician practice tools and resources from the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

On March 12, 2015, the AMA and CDC launched a national, multi-year initiative called "Prevent Diabetes STAT: Screen, Test, Act - Today™."

The goal of Prevent Diabetes STAT is to raise awareness about prediabetes and to increase physician screening, testing and referral to evidence-based diabetes prevention programs that are part of the CDC’s National Diabetes Prevention Program.

Visit preventdiabetesstat.org, the new Web page where physicians and the general public can find helpful content.

The first phase of the initiative is focused on providing physicians and care teams with easy-to-use tools and resources to help them identify people with prediabetes and refer them to community-based or virtual diabetes prevention programs.

Using Prevent Diabetes STAT screening, testing and referral tools can help your practice achieve Patient Centered Medical Home Recognition, as well as Meaningful Use of your electronic medical record.

As a key focus of this initiative, the AMA and CDC are calling on physicians and care teams to:

• Screen patients for prediabetes, using the CDC Prediabetes Screening Test or the American Diabetes Association Diabetes Risk Test.
• Test patients for prediabetes, using one of three blood tests and looking for these results: HbA1C(%) -- 5.7-6.4
  Fasting plasma glucose (mg/dL) -- 100-125
  Oral glucose tolerance test (mg/dL) -- 140-199
• Act Today to prevent diabetes by referring patients with prediabetes to a CDC-recognized diabetes prevention program, where available.
• If a CDC-recognized in-person or virtual diabetes prevention program is not available, patients with prediabetes should be referred for alternate nutrition and physical activity counseling services. Printed educational materials may also be distributed to patients.

The initiative website also includes brief videos to inform both clinicians and patients about the diabetes prevention program, a link to locations of in-person diabetes prevention programs by state and to organizations offering virtual programs, and an online screening tool to help people determine their own risk for type 2 diabetes. Visit the site, take the risk test (don’t forget, physicians are people, too), and encourage colleagues, family members and patients to do the same thing to Prevent Diabetes STAT.