AOA part of CDC Diabetes Translation Conference
June 10, 2011
Health Promotion Committee member W. Lee Ball, O.D., presents “Working Together to Manage Diabetes: Development and Testing of a Comprehensive Checklist.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Diabetes Translation (DDT) convened its annual Diabetes Translation Conference on April 11–14, 2011, in Minneapolis, Minn.
The conference brought together more than 600 participants from a wide range of local, state, federal, and territorial governmental agencies and private-sector diabetes partners. The AOA has been actively involved with the CDC’s DDT activities for more than a decade.
Attending this year’s conference were Health Promotion Committee member W. Lee Ball, O.D., AOA Associate Director for Quality Improvement Beth Kneib, O.D., and AOA Associate Director of Public Health Uzma Zumbrink, DHSc, MPH, who distributed educational material and information regarding the AOA.
Dr. Ball made a presentation on “Working Together to Manage Diabetes: Development and Testing of a Comprehensive Checklist” under the session of Improving Practice: Using Data and Tools to Improve Diabetes Care.
The goal of the program was to gauge whether the checklist would be useful, and used, in a real-world clinical setting.
He said that 74 percent of respondents indicated that they were likely to change their practice to more of a team approach, incorporating the members of the team, or by referral when using the checklist.
Professionals from each of the pharmacy, podiatry, optometry and dental disciplines responded.
Other disciplines included: certified diabetes educators, dietitians, and pharmaceutical technicians, physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants.
According to Greg Wolfe, O.D., chair of the Health Promotion Committee of the AOA Clinical and Practice Advancement Group, “Most vision loss associated with diabetes is preventable; therefore, not only is it paramount that people with diabetes understand the necessity for a comprehensive dilated eye exam, it is also equally important for this message to be reinforced and facilitated by all members of the patients’ health care team. Drs. Ball and Zumbrink’s outstanding projects are important steps in achieving this goal.”
Dr. Zumbrink’s poster presentation was about the impact of the Healthy Eyes Healthy People® (HEHP) program on diabetic retinopathy and eye health care needs of the American public and mainly focusing on the importance of annual dilated eye exams.
HEHP collected data from 2005 to 2009 shows that optometrists provided comprehensive eye exams to 45,573 patients and improved patient awareness of the effect of diabetes on the eye and visual health.
The CDC DDT’s vision is “A world free of the devastation of diabetes.”
Its mission is “to reduce the preventable burden of diabetes through public health leadership, partnership, research, programs, and policies that translate science into practice.”
DDT concentrates its efforts to achieve the greatest impact for populations with the greatest burden or risk.
The AOA has been a longtime sponsor of the annual meeting’s T-shirts. These colorful, diabetes-themed T-shirts with the HEHP logo are a meeting highlight and have been given as gifts from attendees to people around the globe. These T-shirts were designed by Michael Duenas, O.D., the AOA associate director of Health Policy.
The AOA also had an exhibit booth at the meeting and distributed more than 400 copies of a variety of patient education materials, including “Recommended Nutrients for Healthy Eyes,” which details the important link between nutrition and reducing the risk for certain eye diseases.
Along with other educational materials, almost 400 HEHP diabetes CDs and simulator cards were distributed during the meeting.
The DDT is a part of the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).
The division has about 100 employees in Atlanta, plus several public health advisors in the field.
The CDC has had a diabetes division since 1977. In 1989, the name of the division was changed to Division of Diabetes Translation, meaning that the division translates science into daily practice.
In applied or “translation” research, researchers take information from clinical trials and incorporate it into clinical and public health practices.
The division does not support the direct provision of services, but facilitates the efficient, fair, and effective availability of these services to all Americans affected by diabetes.
The division does not do laboratory research and does not routinely fund individual investigators.
Its goals include:
- Prevent diabetes
- Prevent complications, disabilities, and burden associated with diabetes
- Eliminate diabetes-related health disparities
- Maximize organizational capability to achieve DDT goals.
The division’s priorities include:
- Increase diabetes preventive behaviors
- Improve the access to effective lifestyle interventions
- Enhance and improve community and environmental strategies to prevent diabetes
- Improve the health behavior and self-management practices of people with diabetes
- Enhance and improve the access and delivery of effective preventive health care services
- Enhance and improve community and environmental strategies to support people with diabetes
- Improve the science of health and health care disparities related to diabetes
- Prioritize and disseminate public health strategies to eliminate disparities
- Build DDT capacity for communication, evaluation, marketing, policy, and partnerships.
The CDC DDT conference focuses on strategies for preventing type 2 diabetes and managing existing disease. Highlights included:
- A review of the first year of the National Diabetes Prevention Program, a community-based effort to prevent new cases of type 2 diabetes by helping those at highest risk of the disease make healthy lifestyle changes. By 2020, the group lifestyle intervention program aims to reach 15 million of the 79 million Americans with prediabetes. Speakers included Ann Albright, Ph.D., R.D., director of the Division of Diabetes Translation; Jonathan Lever, vice president for strategy and innovation, YMCA of the USA; and Deneen Vojta, M.D., senior vice president of UnitedHealth Group.
- How business coalitions play a role in improving community health. The speaker was Andrew Webber, CEO and president of the National Business Coalition on Health.
- Understanding who is at risk for type 2 diabetes, and how many Americans could develop the disease in coming decades. Speakers included Edward Gregg, Ph.D., and other CDC scientists who monitor diabetes prevalence.
- The increase in gestational diabetes and what that means for pregnant women, their children and the health care system.
- Getting healthier, one person at a time. “The Biggest Loser” season 9 contestants O’Neal Hampton Jr. and SunShine Hampton discussed the importance of community in losing weight and getting healthy.
Dr. Ball’s project, “The Massachusetts Diabetes Education Program Coalition: Working together to Manage Diabetes”—Massachusetts Diabetes Education Program (MDEP) was selected for the 2011 Frankie Awards.
The MDEP was a 2010 recipient of a Healthy Eye Healthy People® award. The goal of this HEHP project was to reinforce consistent diabetes messages across the four PPOD disciplines (pharmacy, podiatry, optometry and dentistry) and to promote a team approach to comprehensive diabetes care that encourages collaboration among all care providers.
Coordinated care improves clinical outcomes with the ultimate goal to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with diabetes.
The overall goal of the project is to fulfill Healthy People Objective 28-5: Reduce visual impairment due to diabetic retinopathy.
The target audiences who benefited from these efforts include pharmacists, podiatrists, optometrists, dentists, dental hygienists, physicians, nurses, dietitians, and others who provide care to people with or at risk for diabetes.
A PPOD panel presentation was given at multiple continuing education venues to educate Massachusetts PPOD providers to encourage interdisciplinary care and interprofessional referrals for patients with diabetes.
Visit www.mdepcoalition.org for more information about the MDEP.
The Frankie Awards are named in honor of Frank Vinicor, M.D., MPH, former director of the CDC DDT and a founder of the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP).
The “Frankies” recognize innovative use of NDEP materials and resources as the cornerstone of diabetes prevention and control programs and initiatives, as well as exemplary promotion and incorporation of NDEP materials and messages into existing programs and activities.
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