Researchers at Cleveland Clinic and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of shared medical appointments for people with pre-diabetes compared to a group of patients receiving normal care. Common medical appointments are usually made by doctors and other health care providers in a medical clinic. As part of this study, shared medical appointments consisted of patients consulting their doctors individually and then joining a group of similar patients to set goals and review laboratory results with the same family doctor and a diabetes advisor. The researchers also assessed the effects of attending a joint doctor’s appointment versus usual treatment on chronic conditions such as high blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure.
Over 24 months, patients attending joint medical appointments lost more weight than patients receiving normal care. At the end of the study period, patients who attended joint medical appointments showed better results in treating the above chronic conditions than patients who received normal care.
The researchers concluded that shared medical appointments can be an effective treatment model for patients with pre-diabetes. As the diabetic epidemic continues, the authors call for more research using common medical appointments to treat prediabetes in healthcare.
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Joint Doctor’s Appointments and Prediabetes: The Power of the Group
Aphrodite Papadakis, MD, et al
Family Medicine Department, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio
https://www.annfammed.org/content/19/3/258
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