May 25, 2005

National Committee for Quality Assurance and Pfizer Inc Publish Best Practices for Managing Diabetes

Third edition of Quality Profiles™: The Leadership Series highlights successful efforts to improve the management of diabetes; volume on cardiovascular disease added to Quality Profiles Web site

WASHINGTON—The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), in collaboration with Pfizer Inc, today released a new publication profiling strategies and recommendations for the management of diabetes.

Quality Profiles™: The Leadership Series—Focus on Diabetes examines barriers to effective care and highlights strategic interventions to help health care organizations and employers prevent diabetes and improve diabetes disease management.

“Diabetes is a modern-day challenge to the health care system,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “But it is a disease that is particularly responsive to a range of interventions that doctors, health plans, and patients, working together, can implement. Our aim is to help health care organizations institute programs that reinforce such patient-centered measures as smoking cessation; exercise programs; and blood pressure, LDL, and glycemic control.”

According to the American Diabetes Association, during the past decade diabetes prevalence has increased by 33 percent in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 1.3 million adults aged 20 years or older are diagnosed with diabetes each year. Because diabetes is a serious progressive disease, patients must keep tight control of blood glucose levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Left unchecked, these health problems can lead to more serious conditions, including cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the importance of patient-centered prevention strategies cannot be underestimated. In fact, studies have demonstrated that even modest weight loss and increased physical activity can cut the incidence of diabetes in half.

Pfizer collaborated with NCQA in this third edition of The Leadership Series to provide strategies to help health care organizations respond proactively. “With diabetes, there’s a real need to work with patients to change behaviors that can actually spare suffering and prolong life,” said Pfizer US Pharmaceuticals’ President Pat Kelly. “Our goal is to share proven quality improvement strategies with organizations that impact the care of patients with diabetes.”

The Quality Profiles series contributes to ongoing efforts to improve diabetes care by offering a resource with information on diabetes prevention and management, including insightful examples of quality improvement activities (QIAs), such as:

A public school system that was able to increase employee medication adherence by 24 percent in one year by launching an intensive health management program

Best practices on the use of a pharmacist-centered approach to diabetes disease management that focuses on education, access, and coordination of care

Several health plan approaches to increasing rates of diabetic retinal exams

Web Site Updated

The Quality Profiles Web site has also been updated to add the previously released volume, Quality Profiles™: The Leadership Series—Focus on Cardiovascular Disease. This volume features two instructive profiles of health plan quality improvement activities. One profile, from a plan with more than half a million members, focuses on improving member outcomes through targeted educational efforts and outreach customized based on an analysis of various risk factors. The second profiles a mid-sized plan’s successful effort to lower dyslipidemia and hypertension by providing clinicians with actionable data on their performance relative to their peers.

The volume will be available online later this week.

To obtain a copy of Quality Profiles™: The Leadership Series—Focus on Diabetes, contact (888) 412-3090 or visit www.qualityprofiles.org.

NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations, recognizes physicians and physician groups in key clinical areas, and manages the evolution of HEDIS®, the tool that 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 to help consumers, employers, and others make more informed health care choices.

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets leading prescription medicines for humans and animals and many of the world's best-known consumer brands. Our innovative, value-added products improve the quality of life of people around the world and help them enjoy longer, healthier, and more productive lives. The company has three business segments: health care, animal health, and consumer health care. Our products are available in more than 150 countries.

Quality Profiles is a trademark of NCQA.
HEDIS is a registered trademark of NCQA.

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ORGANIZATIONS PARTICIPATING IN FOCUS ON DIABETES

• Access III of the Lower Cape Fear, Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Onslow, and Pender Counties, North Carolina
• Eastman World Headquarters, Kingsport, Tennessee
• Excellus Health Plan, Inc., d/b/a Upstate HMO, Syracuse, New York
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc., Wellesley, Massachusetts
• John Deere Health Plan, Inc., Moline, Illinois
• Keystone Health Plan Central, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• National Business Group on Health (NBGH), Washington, D.C.
• Polk County Public Schools, Winter Haven, Florida
• Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), Charleston, West Virginia
• Queen City Physicians, Ltd., Cincinnati, Ohio

ORGANIZATIONS CONTRIBUTING TO FOCUS ON DIABETES

• Deaconess Billings Clinic, Billings, Montana (featured by AMGA’s Models of Excellence)
• Anthem Health Plans of New Hampshire, Inc., d/b/a Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Manchester, New Hampshire
• Capital Health Plan, Inc., d/b/a Capital Health Plan, Tallahassee, Florida
• Grand Valley Health Plan, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Rockville, Maryland