The Alliance to Reduce Disparities in Diabetes: An Overview

The Alliance to Reduce Disparities in Diabetes I. An Overview

Supported by the Merck Company Foundation

www.alliancefordiabetes.org

People at low income levels, African

American, Latino/ Hispanic people,

and American Indians often

experience the worst health

outcomes.

Amputation

Kidney disease

Heart disease

Blindness

Complications of diabetes for them can be severe, including:

The Alliance to Reduce

Disparities in Diabetes aims to

change the outlook for those

who experience the worst

outcomes.

The Alliance aims to reduce disparities in diabetes

outcomes by supporting:

Evidence-based, community-focused

interventions

Efforts to ensure that successful

programs and services are sustained in

policy and practice

Collaboration with key stakeholders at

the national level through local levels to

achieve policy and system change that

reduces inequities in care and

outcomes

Five U.S. cities are the focus of the Alliance’s

community level efforts:

Dallas, Texas

The Baylor Healthcare System’s Office of Health Equity

Chicago, Illinois

The University of Chicago

Memphis, Tennessee

The Healthy Memphis Common Table

Camden, New Jersey

The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers

Wind River Reservation, Wyoming

The Eastern Shoshone Tribe in partnership with the

Northern Arapaho Tribe

At the national level the

Alliance is collaborating with

key organizations who share

our interest in advancing needed

policy and systems change.

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, American Diabetes

Association, American Association of Diabetes Educators, HHS Office

of Minority Health, National Institutes of Health NIDKK, National

Business Coalition on Health, National Council of Urban Indian

Health.

The University of Michigan Center for Managing Chronic

Disease is serving as the Alliance National Program Office.

Alliance Community Programs* have three components:

1

2

3

*Dallas, Texas | Chicago, Illinois | Memphis, Tennessee | Camden, New Jersey | Wind River Reservation, Wyoming

Innovative, evidence-based patient

education

Front-line, proven health provider training

including cultural competence

Sustainable quality improvements in

health care access, coordination, and

relevance

The Alliance is capitalizing on

the unique strengths of its

community partners.

Chicago, Illinois

The University of Chicago has a

history of community involvement in

social and political activism in the

Southside of Chicago.

Memphis, Tennessee

Healthy Memphis Common Table is

a collaborative partner with over 100

churches in the faith-based

community through Memphis

Healthy Churches.

Wind River Reservation

The Wind River Reservation

Alliance leaders have a history of

cultural bonds that are shared

across the Shoshone and Arapahoe

tribes.

Dallas, Texas

Baylor Healthcare System’s Office

of Health Equity partners with

Project Access Dallas to involve

more than 2,000 physician

volunteers.

Camden, New Jersey

Camden Coalition of Healthcare

Providers has exceptional capacity

to work across health care

institutions and coordinate city-wide

information exchange.

PATIENT EDUCATION

Grantees are employing evidence-based

patient education programs to enable diabetes

self-management and empower patients to

become:

• more engaged in their health care decisions

• better at managing their diabetic condition

• adopters of behaviors that help prevent

complications

• effective communicators with physicians and

other clinicians

HEALTH PROVIDER EDUCATION

Alliance interventions aim to enable

clinicians to be more effective in working

with diverse patients through training in

cultural competence and effective

communication skills.

SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATION AND SYSTEMS CHANGE

Each Alliance community is introducing

sustainable changes to how health

organizations and providers manage their

patients through improvements in:

• information exchange

• identifying patients at risk of developing

diabetes or of complications

• access to care

• coordination of services

• assessment of outcomes, e.g., clinical

measures, patient satisfaction with care and

health care use and cost

A short video will show some of the efforts of the

five Alliance community sites

http://youtu.be/jYr2IkB0UZc