Source: CVDaily Feed
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Intermountain Healthcare is involved with two other corporate partners in an initiative aimed at reducing the alarming number of adults who develop type 2 diabetes.
Right now 86 million Americans have pre-diabetes so there is an urgency to get these millions some informed help.
“This is the first time that a healthcare system, in partnership with a major medical professional organization like the American Medical Association (AMA) — and a private corporation like Omada Health — has partnered together to try and influence health care delivery of patients,”
said Dr. Liz Joy, Medical Director for Community Health at Intermountain Healthcare.
She said the idea is to create a roadmap for health care organizations across the country to adopt proven online behavior change for at risk patients, then integrate those programs into provider referrals.
“Our numbers of those affected by pre-diabetes are increasing as a result of increasing body weight. About 90 percent of those affected by pre-diabetes don’t know they have it,” she said.
The AMA’s program known as STAT (screen, test and act today) encourages physicians and health care systems to get the word out that people need to be screened for pre-diabetes.
“They could then be enrolled in a program aimed at achieving at least a five percent weight loss, which is associated with a significant decrease in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.”
Intermountain Healthcare offers a program aimed at getting information to patients and to their primary care providers about screening for pre-diabetes and, for those who have the condition, enrolling them into a program.
“In three years we have enrolled 3,000 patients in a diabetes prevention program and we hope in the coming year to enroll even more,” said Dr. Joy.