Mayo Clinic clinicians develop new decision aid tool to help type 2 diabetes patients (w/ Video)

Mayo Clinic clinicians and designers, along with colleagues from other institutions, have developed and tested a tool to involve patients more in their diabetes treatment and medication choices. The tool, a set of decision aid cards, could help patients make decisions involving their disease and perhaps lead to better outcomes. The results of this randomized trial are in September's issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Victor Montori, M.D., a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist in Rochester, is co-author of the study. He heads the Knowledge Encounter Research Unit (KER) in the Department of Medicine and is a member of the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. You can watch Dr. Montori and study coordinator Rebecca Mullan discuss the trial on this video.

The initial randomized trial of the Diabetes Medication Choice decision aid cards was inconclusive because both patient groups had near-perfect adherence to their medication use. However, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently awarded a grant to the team to further evaluate the efficacy of these cards in rural primary care practices in southeastern Minnesota.

Dr. Montori says, "We are going to see if these same tools can impact the health of patients with diabetes in rural communities in southeastern Minnesota … to see if these decision aids can in fact provide better patient-centered care for patients with diabetes."

More information: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/169/17/1560

Source: Mayo Clinic (news : web)