Recent articles address federal diabetes programs, type 1 diabetes care

Members of the National Clinical Care Commission (NCCC) summarized their recommendations for improving federal diabetes programs in a recent article.

The NCCC, which includes 23 experts, was convened by HHS in 2017 to evaluate and make recommendations to improve diabetes programs. An Ideas and Opinions article published by Annals of Internal Medicine on Feb. 15 offered highlights from the NCCC's final report, which was submitted to Congress on Jan. 5.

The report included 39 recommendations that require administrative action by federal agencies or departments or legislative action by Congress. One is to create an Office of National Diabetes Policy. The summary noted that the recommendations “directly address administrative barriers that clinicians regularly face on behalf of their patients, such as improving access to lifestyle change and education programs, diabetes devices, and insurance coverage for evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies.” The NCCC called for training and redesign of health care teams, enhanced use of virtual care modalities, and updated policies governing diabetes self-management training and diabetes devices.

Optimizing type 1 diabetes care was the focus of an In the Clinic article published by Annals on March 8. The article reviewed how to diagnose, evaluate, and treat type 1 diabetes, addressing questions such as when to consider hospitalization or referral to a subspecialist and how to choose an insulin regimen or decide if continuous glucose monitoring is appropriate. The article also includes a toolkit of resources for patients with type 1 diabetes.