Diabetes Ten City Challenge Collaborative Model Shows Improved Patient Health Across Key Clinical ...( APhA Foundation Announces Interim R...),Health

APhA Foundation Announces Interim Results from National Chronic Disease

Management Initiative

WASHINGTON, March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Interim results show that participants in the Diabetes Ten City Challenge (DTCC) improved across all key clinical and patient satisfaction indicators in the early stages of the program, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation announced today.

Initial data show a positive trend in controlling diabetes, the chronic disease that affects 21 million Americans and costs the U.S. more than $174 billion annually. The final DTCC report, due out in 2009, will include cost-savings data for DTCC employers.

The Diabetes Ten City Challenge (DTCC) is an employer-based diabetes self-management program conducted by APhA Foundation with support from GlaxoSmithKline. Since it was launched in October 2005, 31 employers in ten cities have joined forces with hundreds of pharmacists to help more than 1,000 people manage their diabetes.

Through the DTCC, employers establish a voluntary health benefit for employees, dependents and retirees with diabetes, and waive co-payments for diabetes medications and supplies if they work with a pharmacist "coach" to manage their condition in collaboration with their doctors and diabetes educators. The DTCC is modeled after other highly successful APhA programs that have proven to improve overall health, reduce absenteeism, shorten hospital stays and reduce health care costs.

"The results to date prove that this collaborative-practice model is effective for managing diabetes and replicable in diverse locations and employers," said William M. Ellis, CEO of the APhA Foundation and co-author of a peer-reviewed article on the results published in the March/April issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (JAPhA). "In years of experience with this model we have seen that when you have positive clinical outcomes and inc
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