Aligning to Improve Outcomes: The Alliance to Reduce Disparities in Diabetes A presentation from a symposium at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Diabetes Translation's (DDT) 34th annual Diabetes Translation Conference on April 11-14, 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1. The Alliance to Reduce
Disparities in Diabetes
I. An Overview
Supported by the Merck Company Foundation
www.alliancefordiabetes.org

2. People at low income levels, African
American, Latino/ Hispanic people,
and American Indians often
experience the worst health
outcomes.

3. Complications of diabetes for them can be severe,
including:
Amputation
Kidney disease
Heart disease
Blindness

4. The Alliance to Reduce
Disparities in Diabetes aims to
change the outlook for those
who experience the worst
outcomes.

5. The Alliance aims to reduce disparities in diabetes
outcomes by supporting:
Evidence-based, community-focused
interventions
Efforts to ensure that successful
programs and services are sustained in
policy and practice
Collaboration with key stakeholders at
the national level through local levels to
achieve policy and system change that
reduces inequities in care and
outcomes

6. Five U.S. cities are the focus of the Alliance’s
community level efforts:
Dallas, Texas
The Baylor Healthcare System’s Office of Health Equity
Chicago, Illinois
The University of Chicago
Memphis, Tennessee
The Healthy Memphis Common Table
Camden, New Jersey
The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers
Wind River Reservation, Wyoming
The Eastern Shoshone Tribe in partnership with the
Northern Arapaho Tribe

7. At the national level the
Alliance is collaborating with
key organizations who share
our interest in advancing needed
policy and systems change.
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, American Diabetes
Association, American Association of Diabetes Educators, HHS Office
of Minority Health, National Institutes of Health NIDKK, National
Business Coalition on Health, National Council of Urban Indian
Health.

8. The University of Michigan Center for Managing Chronic
Disease is serving as the Alliance National Program Office.

9. Alliance Community Programs* have
three components:
1 Innovative, evidence-based patient
education
Front-line, proven health provider training
2 including cultural competence
Sustainable quality improvements in
3 health care access, coordination, and
relevance
*Dallas, Texas | Chicago, Illinois | Memphis, Tennessee | Camden, New Jersey | Wind River Reservation, Wyoming

10. The Alliance is capitalizing on
the unique strengths of its
community partners.

11. Chicago, Illinois
The University of Chicago has a
history of community involvement in
social and political activism in the
Southside of Chicago.

12. Memphis, Tennessee
Healthy Memphis Common Table is
a collaborative partner with over 100
churches in the faith-based
community through Memphis
Healthy Churches.

13. Wind River Reservation
The Wind River Reservation
Alliance leaders have a history of
cultural bonds that are shared
across the Shoshone and Arapahoe
tribes.

14. Dallas, Texas
Baylor Healthcare System’s Office
of Health Equity partners with
Project Access Dallas to involve
more than 2,000 physician
volunteers.

15. Camden, New Jersey
Camden Coalition of Healthcare
Providers has exceptional capacity
to work across health care
institutions and coordinate city-wide
information exchange.

16. PATIENT EDUCATION
Grantees are employing evidence-based
patient education programs to enable diabetes
self-management and empower patients to
become:
• more engaged in their health care decisions
• better at managing their diabetic condition
• adopters of behaviors that help prevent
complications
• effective communicators with physicians and
other clinicians

17. HEALTH PROVIDER EDUCATION
Alliance interventions aim to enable
clinicians to be more effective in working
with diverse patients through training in
cultural competence and effective
communication skills.

18. SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATION
AND SYSTEMS CHANGE
Each Alliance community is introducing
sustainable changes to how health
organizations and providers manage their
patients through improvements in:
• information exchange
• identifying patients at risk of developing
diabetes or of complications
• access to care
• coordination of services
• assessment of outcomes, e.g., clinical
measures, patient satisfaction with care and
health care use and cost

19. A short video will show some of the efforts of the
five Alliance community sites
http://youtu.be/jYr2IkB0UZc