By Hannah Nelson
April 02, 2021 – The vast majority of healthcare professionals agree that coordinating care and collaborating between providers will result in better care for patients with type 2 diabetes. However, according to a survey by The Harris Poll, many vendors see time as an obstacle to working together on behalf of Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company.
About 90 percent of health care professionals agree that people with type 2 diabetes whose clinicians work together tend to get better results than people who do not work together.
The survey of 1,000 healthcare professionals is part of the Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company’s The Truth About Diabetes and Heart Disease campaign, which promotes multidisciplinary care.
dig deeper
“Diabetes is a complex disease and each specialty should prioritize the overall health of its patients and work with other specialists to develop treatment plans without worrying about over-limits,” said Dr. Javed Butler, chairman of the University of Mississippi Medical Department. said in a press release.
“When our specialties work together, we give our patients the best chance for success – which is highlighted in our professional association guidelines, including those of the American Diabetes Association and the American College of Cardiology,” continued Butler.
However, time is an obstacle to the coordination of care between health professionals. More than 80 percent of endocrinologists, cardiologists, and nephrologists want more time in their schedules to track patients when they visit multiple care providers.
When treating patients with type 2 diabetes, most health professionals (80 percent of nurses, 79 percent of nephrologists, 73 percent of endocrinologists, 69 percent of primary care physicians, and 63 percent of cardiologists) said they had the resources they would call another specialist to help treat these patients.
Most healthcare providers believe that the greatest benefit of collaborative care for people with type 2 diabetes is higher quality of care (90 percent of nurses, 80 percent of general practitioners, 78 percent of cardiologists, 77 percent of nephrologists, and 74 percent) from endocrinologists) .
However, three out of five specialists (76 percent of endocrinologists, 67 percent of cardiologists, and 60 percent of nephrologists) said they often do not receive health information about the condition of a referred patient prior to the visit.
Most respondents found that sharing information through EHR interoperability would encourage collaboration between providers. Easy access to resources with professional collaboration guidelines can also help.
“This survey underscores the need to foster multidisciplinary collaboration to improve patient outcomes so that it becomes endemic in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and related cardio-renal metabolic diseases,” said Sandy Sommer, senior vice president of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Cardio-Metabolic Disorders Franchise. “Type 2 diabetes increases the risk of interrelated diseases that affect the heart, kidneys and endocrine system, causing up to 20 million deaths worldwide.”
The vast majority of health professionals (90 percent of nurses, 86 percent of general practitioners, 86 percent of cardiologists, 86 percent of nephrologists, and 85 percent of endocrinologists) agreed that all specialists involved in treating type 2 diabetes were the same are responsible for prescribing the best treatments for the patient, regardless of the specialty.
However, the confidence of health professionals in the prescription of diabetes drugs such as SGLT2 inhibitor or GLP-1 receptor agonist varies by specialty and therapy class. While over 90 percent of endocrinologists and PCPs are confident about prescribing SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists, about 20 to 40 percent of nephrologists and cardiologists said they are reluctant to prescribe this class of drugs because it is outside of theirs primary subject area.
“The results of this survey show that there is a way to improve collaboration among healthcare professionals, and we hope that education about the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration encourages healthcare professionals to take action,” said Matt Caffrey , Senior Director of US Diabetes / CV Marketing for Lilly Diabetes.
