Reducing Clinical Inertia in Diabetes Care

The objective of this project is to improve the care of adults with diabetes (DM) by implementing effective interventions to reduce Clinical Inertia related to control of glycated hemoglobin (A1c), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and LDL-Cholesterol (LDL) in primary care office settings. Clinical inertia is defined as lack of treatment intensification in a patient not at evidence-based goals for A1c, SBP, or LDL. Clinical Inertia (CI) has been implicated as a major factor that contributes to inadequate A1c, SBP, and LDL control, and has been documented in over 80% of primary care office visits in various settings,despite the fact that only 3% to 23% of adults with diabetes have simultaneously achieved A1c < 7%, SBP < 130 mm Hg, and LDL < 100 mg/dl.

In this project we test two interventions designed to reduce clinical inertia. The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (CBI) is directed at individual primary care physicians and has three components: (a) analyze each physician's clinical moves with diabetes patients to identify patterns that indicate clinical inertia, (b) engage each physician in a series of simulated clinical cases to assess the underlying causes of clinical inertia, and (c) provide each physician with a series of tailored simulated clinical scenarios that are designed to correct the failures of thinking and decision making that result in that physician's observed patterns of clinical inertia. The CBI intervention is based on recent work in cognitive science and learning theory and has been successfully applied in other research and educational settings.

The Office Systems Redesign (OSR) Intervention is also directed to primary care physicians and has three major components: (a) identify specific patients in need of intensified diabetes care and schedule four consecutive monthly office visits with their primary care physician, (b) provide the physician with tailored and specific clinical decision support at the time of each visit based on evidence-based treatment algorithms, (c) implement physician visit resolution and accountability reporting immediately after each visit, using tools adapted from clinical trial protocols.

Inclusion criteria

Physicians must practice at one of the 18 HPMG clinics and meet all these additional eligibility criteria: (a) be a general internist or family physician, (b) provide ongoing clinical care for 20 or more adults with diabetes mellitus in 2003, and (c) provide written informed consent to participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria

None