A national index for measuring and mapping diabetes in the United States has been launched to help prevent the disease and help determine outcomes and costs associated with it.
The National Minority Quality Forum and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, in collaboration with the CBC Health Braintrust, announced introduced the U.S. Diabetes Index (USDI) on March 15.
According to the USDI website the index is “a ‘power-tool’ that provides the most comprehensive source of available data about diabetics, their care, and the trends that are shaping the U.S. diabetes market. It contains more than 30,000 tables, maps, charts and graphs by nation, state, county, city, congressional district, state legislative district and zip code. USDI further segments diabetes data by race/ethnicity, age and gender.”
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“Mapping diabetes can help local physicians understand the populations they are working with and better tailor prevention and treatment efforts to that particular community,” said Jaime Davidson, MD, professor of Internal Medicine, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, Division of Endocrinology and a past council member for the Texas Department of Health. “The maps crystallize the problem unlike any other resource available and graphically illustrate the diabetes crisis and the need for urgent action.”
According to the USDI, almost half of all patients with diabetes are not controlled; only 55 percent of diabetics check their blood sugar at least once a day; and more than half report not visiting their doctor over a 12-month period.
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“Diabetes has geographical features to it; that is, blood glucose levels, prevalence, rates of hospitalization vary by geography,” said Gary Puckrein, USDI developer and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum. “USDI allows us to direct our resources to the most affected areas so that those living with the disease in high-risk communities are no longer subjected to the patterns of avoidable hospitalizations and premature death that currently afflict them. We are pleased to make this resource available to our industry partners as well as to patient advocates and health partners such as the Diabetes Care Project – a coalition of patient advocates and health partners committed to improving each patient’s health outcome while lowering costs for the entire health system,” he said.
USDI and its companion website, USDI Report, seek to provide the most comprehensive source of available data about people living with diabetes, their care, and the trends that are shaping the disease in the United States. USDI Report draws upon information from the U.S. Diabetes Index, but also collaborates with Gallup and Healthways, authors of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, and other third-party information providers to present the most current and updated depiction of diabetes in America.
“We are pleased to collaborate with the National Minority Quality Forum,” says Congresswoman Donna Christensen, MD, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust. “Given the healthcare and budgetary concerns that are in the forefront of deliberations on Capitol Hill and in state capitols across the country, this tool can help inform the public discourse on how and where healthcare dollars are best spent on diabetes prevention, care and treatment.”
