Why has the Changing Diabetes Map been created?

Measuring and publishing aggregated patient outcomes (such as HbA_1c) as a catalyst to improve results is becoming a valuable tool to healthcare providers and policy makers¹.

In Minnesota (United States), a non profit organisation was set up with clear goals to improve the quality of health care in Minnesota. By supporting quality initiatives and public communication of the results, five diabetes outcome measures improved after just two years of public reporting². Similarly, the National Primary Care Collaboratives (NPCC) is an Australian initiative where general practitioners (GPs) and primary health care providers work together to improve patient clinical outcomes, and this has also produced significant improvements in diabetes measures³.

The Changing Diabetes Map aims to raise awareness of diabetes control by sharing, in a visual and user friendly format, the results of the "Mapping Glycaemic Control Across Australia" project. This provides an opportunity to identify regions which may be able to share better practice models or those regions which may benefit from initiatives and programmes to improve patient outcomes.

Providing access to average HbA_1c levels through an interactive website which can be searched by postcode, division of General Practice or at a state level allows the information to be easily accessible to health care providers, policy makers and patients.

The "Mapping Glycaemic Control Across Australia Project" will collect, clean and analyse the HbA1c data annually for the next five years. Annual updated summary data will be made available for access through the Changing Diabetes Map providing a framework to track and monitor HbA_1c levels. This also provides the potential to analyse data trends and determine the impact of targeted interventions.

View the Changing Diabetes Map

References:
1. Porter ME and Teisberg EO. How physicians can change the future of health care JAMA 2007; 297 (10): 1103-1111
2. Community MN: Measurement’s 2006 Health Care Quality Report. © MN Community Measurement 2007.http://www.mnhealthcare.org
3. NPCC September Newsletter 11 September 2007. © Commonwealth of Australia 2005.http://www.npcc.com.au/index.html

Last updated: March 2009
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