Type 2 diabetes patients may do better controlling their blood sugar levels when they receive follow-up primary care from a team of providers led by a clinical pharmacist. Further, a study led by a University of Utah College of Pharmacy faculty found that a pharmacist-led Diabetes Collaborative Care Management Program (DCCM) could better control the costs of medical care.
The researchers conducted the study using de-identified medical records of type 2 diabetes patients who’d had trouble controlling their blood sugar levels and were treated at patient-centered, community-based primary care clinics in the greater Salt Lake City area. The study looked at patients whose drug management was led by a clinical pharmacist and those whose plan was not managed by a clinical pharmacist and compared health care outcomes, how often they saw their providers and the total health care costs of each group. “A pharmacist-led diabetes collaborative care management program in a patient-centered primary care setting was associated with significantly better follow-up glycemic control relative to comparison patients,” the researchers reported in the June 2015 issue of the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy.
The data also suggested that the DCCM program was associated with a less substantial increase in all-cause total costs in patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes relative to the comparison patients. This could help reduce costs of managed care payers, the researchers reported.