Evaluating the Effectiveness of Diabetes Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) as Implemented in Five Veterans Affairs Health Systems: a Multi-site Cluster Randomized Pragmatic Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether diabetes shared medical appointments (SMAs) implemented as part of usual clinical practice in diverse health systems are more effective than usual care in improving and sustaining A1c improvements. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A multi-site cluster randomized pragmatic trial examining implementation in clinical practice of diabetes SMAs in five Veterans Affairs (VA) health systems was conducted from 2016 to 2020 among 1537 adults with type 2 diabetes and elevated A1cs. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to either: (1) invitation to participate in a series of SMAs totaling 8-9 h; or (2) continuation of usual care. Relative change in A1c (primary outcome) and in systolic blood pressure, insulin starts, statin starts, and anti-hypertensive medication classes (secondary outcomes) were measured as part of usual clinical care at baseline, at 6 months and at 12 months (~7 months after conclusion of the final SMA in four of five sites). We examined outcomes in three samples of SMA participants: all those scheduled for a SMA, those attending at least one SMA, and those attending at least half of SMAs. RESULTS: Baseline mean A1c was 9.0%. Participants scheduled for an SMA achieved A1c reductions 0.35% points greater than the control group between baseline and 6-months follow up (p = .001). Those who attended at least one SMA achieved reductions 0.42 % points greater (p < .001), and those who attended at least half of scheduled SMAs achieved reductions 0.53 % points greater (p < .001) than the control group. At 12-month follow-up, the three SMA analysis samples achieved reductions from baseline ranging from 0.16 % points (p = 0.12) to 0.29 % points (p = .06) greater than the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes SMAs as implemented in real-life diverse clinical practices improve glycemic control more than usual care immediately after the SMAs, but relative gains are not maintained. Our findings suggest the need for further study of whether a longer term SMA model or other follow-up strategies would sustain relative clinical improvements associated with this intervention. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT02132676.

Assessing Residents' Veteran-Centered Care Skills in the Clinical Setting.

BACKGROUND: Despite their placement in Veterans Health Administration centers nationwide, residents' training and assessment in veteran-centered care is variable and often insufficient. OBJECTIVE: We assessed residents' ability to recognize and address mental health issues that affect US military veterans. METHODS: Two unannounced standardized patient (SP) cases were used to assess internal medicine residents' veteran-centered care skills from September 2014 to March 2016. Residents were assessed on 7 domains: military history taking, communication skills, assessment skills, mental health screening, triage, and professionalism, using a 36-item checklist. After each encounter, residents completed a questionnaire to assess their ability to recognize knowledge deficits. Residents' mean scores were compared across training levels, between the 2 cases, and by SP gender. We conducted analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests to analyze mean performance differences across training levels and descriptive statistics to analyze self-assessment questionnaire results. RESULTS: Ninety-eight residents from 2 internal medicine programs completed the encounter and 53 completed the self-assessment questionnaire. Residents performed best on professionalism (0.92 ± 0.20, percentage of the maximal score) and triage (0.87 ± 0.17), and they scored lowest on posttraumatic stress disorder (0.52 ± 0.30) and military sexual trauma (0.33 ± 0.39). Few residents reported that they sought out training to enhance their knowledge and skills in the provision of services and support to military and veteran groups beyond their core curriculum. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that additional education and assessment in veteran-centered care may be needed, particularly in the areas of posttraumatic stress disorder and military sexual trauma.

The Shared Health Appointments and Reciprocal Enhanced Support (SHARES) study: study protocol for a randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes shared medical appointments (SMAs) and reciprocal peer support programs have been found in efficacy trials to help adults with diabetes improve their self-management and achieve short-term gains in clinical and patient-centered outcomes. In order to translate this evidence to system-level interventions, there is a need for large-scale, pragmatic trials that examine the effectiveness, implementation, and costs of SMAs and reciprocal peer support across diverse settings. METHODS: The Shared Health Appointments and Reciprocal Enhanced Support (SHARES) study is a multisite, cluster randomized trial that is evaluating the effectiveness and implementation of SMAs with and without an additional reciprocal Peer-to-Peer (P2P) support program, when compared to usual care. The P2P program comprises periodic peer support group sessions and telephone contact between SMA participant pairs to promote more effective diabetes self-management. We will examine outcomes across three different treatment groups: (1) SMAs, (2) SMAs plus P2P, and (3) usual care. We will collect and analyze data over a 2.5-year implementation period at five geographically diverse Veterans Affairs (VA) health systems. The primary outcome is the relative change in hemoglobin A1c over time. Secondary outcomes are changes in systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use, statin use, and insulin initiation over the study period. The unit of analysis is the individual, adjusted by the individual's SMA group (the cluster). We will use mixed methods to rigorously evaluate processes and costs of implementing these programs in each of the clinic settings. DISCUSSION: We hypothesize that patients will experience improved outcomes immediately following participation in SMAs and that augmenting SMAs with reciprocal peer support will help to maintain these gains over time. The results of this study will be among the first to examine the effects of diabetes SMAs alone and in conjunction with P2P in a range of real-life clinical settings. In addition, the study will provide important information on contextual factors associated with successful program implementation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02132676 . Registered on 21 August 2013.