Criteria used to determine the 2008 Programs of Excellence:
1) A demonstrated contribution to the field of diabetes prevention, education, and/or management.
2) Initiatives that are innovative, multidisciplinary and could serve as models for others.
3) Demonstrated outcomes, or a measurement of direct or indirect impact.
Examples of eligible nominees include initiatives conducted by communities; schools; worksites; health
care organizations; government agencies; non-profits; and local collaboratives, coalitions and/or
partnerships.
Archives:
Below are the 2008 recognized Programs of Excellence:
Center for Community Health, Education & Research, Inc. created a Diabetes and Obesity Fitness
Project among the Haitian population in the Metro Boston and surrounding areas. The project is aimed
at Haitian men and women who are diabetic, overweight or obese. Hyde Park Health Associates, a
private group practice run by Haitian and non-Haitian physicians, collaborated on the project with
CCHER. The project aims to increase awareness about diabetes and obesity in the Haitian community,
increase screening and early detection of diabetes, improve participants’ health status and disseminate
and publish findings. The Diabetes and Obesity Fitness Project intervention consists of four-intensive
weeks of group counseling for all the participants followed by monthly group counseling, individual
counseling for participants, monthly group education on diabetes, risk factors, prevention and
management, fitness and nutrition and two hours of exercise on site offered every to all participants.
The project offered Haitians several services: clinical assessment by an internal medicine physician,
counseling around good nutrition habits by a licensed dietician/nutritionist, counseling about the
benefit of doing exercise, education about diabetes, treatment, management, and prevention by
clinicians and radio and TV talk shows about Diabetes and obesity. The program also offered
anthropometric measurements such as: BMI, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, abdominal girth,
percentage of body fat, waist-to-hip ratio. Serologic testing was done on total fasting cholesterol, LDL,
HDL, LDL and HDL ratio, HA1c, and fasting blood sugar. Data from the project is being collected at
baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9, month and 12 months. At the time of the POE, the overall health of the
participants has improved: Participants moved from being inactive to very active, somewhat active and
a little bit active. Sixty percent of the participants had lost some weight, 70% of the participants had
their LDL decrease and 75% of the participants their HA1c improved.
Diabetes Association, Inc.'s (DAI), CD REC, Healthy City Fall River and Fall River Boys & Girls Club have
joined together to challenge adults who live or work in Fall River to collectively lose a ton of weight!
(2000 lbs). Fitness participants will gain access to programs and fitness centers throughout the city for
little or no cost. Programs that will help them learn to eat well, lose weight, get fit, help prevent Type 2
diabetes and win some great prizes! The challenge is a way to call attention to already existing
programs and to teach and encourage a healthy lifestyle and encourage people to change habits that
are destructive to their health. The Fall River Fitness Challenge is open to all adults who live or work in
Fall River, MA. Businesses and Social groups were challenged to form teams to support one another.
The Fall River Fitness Challenge is running from January 7th, 2008 until May 10th 2008. The fitness
challenge has initiated a huge response, with 1000 participants that required new fitness classes to be
added to accommodate the large numbers. Total weight loss as of February 15th, 2008 is 650 lbs. Fifty-
five teams are enrolled, including five elementary schools, three middle schools, school
administrations, the post office and community health centers. Participants are being tracked in a
central data base and through biweekly weigh-ins. Many participants with diabetes are attending the
support groups at the DAI, where they receive valuable education, support, and self-management
education.
Massachusetts General Hospital's Diabetes Management Program was designed improve the quality of
diabetes care and to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes control and testing between Latino
and non-Latino White patients at the MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center. The program is open to all adult
patients with poorly controlled diabetes but is culturally and linguistically tailored to improve access to
Latino patients whose control is poor when compared to white patients. The Chelsea Diabetes
Management Program offers individual coaching, group visits, or both to participants, in both English
and Spanish. Individual (one-on-one) coaching is based on a culturally competent model for chronic
disease management. The program also offers an extensive patient education and counseling
component via a series of four intensive group education sessions that comply with ADA learning
objectives. The group meetings are arranged so that each patient attends up to six 90-minute
sessions. Each group has a target enrollment of 15 patients. Separate group sessions are offered in
English and Spanish, and will be led by a nurse practitioner with extensive experience in diabetes care
as well as a bilingual diabetes coach. The groups address the following topics: diabetes disease
process; nutritional management and physical activity; medications and monitoring; prevention,
detection, and treatment of acute and chronic complications; and psychological adjustment. The bi-
lingual nurse is also available to meet with individuals for those not able to come to the group visits.
The program also includes a mailing and telephone follow up to patients who have not had HbA1c
testing in 9 months and encouragement for them to come in for testing. To date approximately 350
patients have been enrolled in the coaching component of the program, close to 1500 coaching visits
have occurred, and 90 patients have gone through the 4 session, intensive group education classes on
diabetes management. In addition, the coach and a psychiatric nurse have started a successful
support group that meets weekly for 8 sessions per group. They have completed their first group, and
on their second with a total of 12 patients participating. A formal evaluation is now underway to
assess improvements in glucose control, reductions in disparities between Latino and non-Latino white
patients, and improvement in diabetes knowledge and behaviors. Preliminary data suggests that
participants in the program have achieved average reductions in HbA1c of 1.4 points, which would be a
huge success relative to other published diabetes programs.
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| Programs of Excellence |
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| Other Years Programs of Excellence |