January 25, 2007
Key Supporters Renew Commitment to Diabetes Physician Recognition Program
More than 2,600 doctors currently recognized by the program; drives improvement in diabetes care
WASHINGTON -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced today that three founding supporters of NCQA’s popular Physician Recognition programs—GlaxoSmithKline, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer Inc—were joined by Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. in their commitment to physician recognition. Their support will help expand efforts to educate physicians and physician groups about the NCQA/American Diabetes Association (ADA) Diabetes Physician Recognition Program (DPRP). The program recognizes physicians who demonstrate that they provide excellent diabetes care and provides critical information to purchasers and consumers of health care and support quality improvement efforts by health care providers.
“Diabetes exacts a high toll in human and financial terms,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “Helping patients find physicians who provide top-notch care is the first step in mitigating the costs of diabetes. We’re pleased that our sponsors share our ongoing commitment to improving care and health outcomes.”
NCQA developed the DPRP in partnership with the ADA in 1997. To earn diabetes recognition, a physician or physician groups must collect and submit data related to the treatment of people with diabetes, such as the percentage of patients whose cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels are under control. Those that meet or exceed national performance thresholds are recognized on a dedicated Web page and added to a referral list, to which NCQA and ADA direct interested consumers. More than 2,600 physicians have been recognized to date.
For more information on the DPRP, visit NCQA’s Web site at www.ncqa.org/dprp. A searchable database of Recognized physicians is available at www.healthchoices.org.
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and manages the evolution of HEDISâ, the tool the nation’s health plans use to measure and report on their performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers, state and federal agencies and others make more informed health care choices.
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