Promoting patient and professional competencies in diabetes care and management - a prerequisite for high-quality evidence-based health care

Project summary

In line with the rapidly growing ageing population, as well as the increasing number of people with diabetes, maintaining high-quality health care services and ensuring proper workforce competencies are challenging.  This project intends to expand the evidence-based decision base for innovation in patient self-management competencies and to advocate the renewal of health care providers' professional delivery of diabetes care and management. Web-based interventions have the potential to develop a more modern, dynamic and flexible diabetes care based on the individuals’ needs, which in turn, can increase people with type 2 diabetes motivation for diabetes management. An intervention study, based on self-determination theory, has been designed to promote patients' diabetes management and empowerment and is currently being tested in a feasibility study. In special care, data has been collected to analyze characteristics and referral data of people with diabetes-related foot ulcers attending specialist health care settings. These results are useful in determining and planning how health care personnel can contribute to strategies to promote health and prevent diseases among people with diabetes who are at risk of foot ulcers. These results will also inform an ongoing telemedicine follow-up care intervention for people with diabetes-related foot ulcers in municipal primary health care in collaboration with specialist health care. Data collection is also ongoing in two sub-studies in home care service. The first study aims to assess diabetes prevalence in the home care service population. The second examines to what degree diabetes treatment goals are reflected in home care services records. Qualitative data are collected in all parts of the project to explore patient experiences, as well as experiences and challenges health care professionals face, in implementing complex interventions and evidence-based guidelines. User involvement is emphasized in all phases of the research project.