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Population Health Management for Diabetes: Health Care System-Level Approaches for Improving Quality and Addressing Disparities

  • Economics and Policy in Diabetes (ES Huang and AA Baig, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Population care approaches for diabetes have the potential to improve the quality of care and decrease diabetes-related mortality and morbidity. Population care strategies are particularly relevant as accountable care organizations (ACOs), patient-centered medical homes (PCMH), and integrated delivery systems are increasingly focused on managing chronic disease care at the health system level. This review outlines the key elements of population care approaches for diabetes in the current health care environment.

Recent Findings

Population care approaches proactively identify diabetes patients through disease registries and electronic health record data and utilize multidisciplinary care teams, personalized provider feedback, and decision support tools to target and care for patients at risk for poor outcomes. Existing evidence suggests that these strategies can improve care outcomes and potentially ameliorate existing race/ethnic disparities in health care. However, such strategies may be less effective for patients who are disengaged from the health care system.

Summary

As population care for diabetes continues to evolve, future initiatives should consider ways to tailor population care to meet individual patient needs, while leveraging improvements in clinical information systems and care integration to optimally manage and prevent diabetes in the future.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: •• Of major importance

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIDDK grant numbers 5R18DK104249 and 2P30-DK092924.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, 2000 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 94612, USA

    Julie A. Schmittdiel, Anjali Gopalan, Christopher V. Chau & Alyce S. Adams

  2. Kaiser Permanente Northern California Oakland Medical Center, Oakland, CA, USA

    Mark W. Lin & Somalee Banerjee

  3. University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Christopher V. Chau

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  1. Julie A. Schmittdiel
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Correspondence to Julie A. Schmittdiel.

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Julie Schmittdiel, Anjali Gopalan, Mark Lin, Somalee Banerjee, Christopher Chau, and Alyce Adams declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any new studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Economics and Policy in Diabetes

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Schmittdiel, J.A., Gopalan, A., Lin, M.W. et al. Population Health Management for Diabetes: Health Care System-Level Approaches for Improving Quality and Addressing Disparities. Curr Diab Rep 17, 31 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-017-0858-3

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