Drug Topics - January 2009 - (Page 20) Professional ON-THE-JOB INSTRUCTION Chrysler provides on-site coaching for diabetics Alaina Scott, Senior Editor 14-month pilot program at Chrysler’s Sterling Heights, Mich., assembly plant suggests that getting job-site coaching from a pharmacist or dietitian helps workers control their diabetes. The assembly plant program ended this past April. Follow-up data showed participants, on average, lowered their glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level by 1.3 percentage points. According to Roger P. Austin, clinical pharmacy specialist at the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) in Detroit, the plant’s workers also had an average decrease of 56.8 mg/dL in their random blood glucose levels and improved their blood pressure and cholesterol profiles. The assembly plant program was a joint project of the automaker, HFHS, and the health system’s nonprofit subsidiary, the Health Alliance Plan. Austin, who worked with HFHS dietitians at the auto plant, described the project and its results at the annual meeting of the American Association of Diabetes Educators in Washington, D.C. Clinicians helped participants to identify their biggest diabetes-related concerns and frustrations, and to address these issues with their physicians. “The intervention was just this whole dialogue,” Austin said. The diabetes management program was open to both prediabetic and dia- A A Chrysler employee discusses diabetes management with a coach Network Professional SEE INDEX PAGE 10 For more info on this topic, see www.drugtopics.com betic workers. The population tested included workers with “blood pressure through the roof [and] cholesterol numbers I haven’t seen in a long time,” Austin said. Seventy workers enrolled in the program and 34 completed it, attending at least five one-on-one counseling sessions. Aggregate data from before and after the intervention were obtained for 22 participants. Austin emphasized that the assembly plant program was not a randomized, controlled trial. Nonetheless, he said, the change in average HbA1c values, which fell to 7.2 percent from a baseline average of 8.5 percent, was “pretty amazing.” According to a Chrysler spokesman, the Sterling Heights program was modeled after Driving DCX, a diabetes management program at Chrysler’s headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. Under the Driving DCX model, workers signed up for six one-on-one coaching sessions with an HFHS diabetes educator to identify personal goals for improving their blood glucose levels through diet and medication management. At Chrysler headquarters, 160 employees participated in the program, which ran from August 2005 to February 2006. Austin said HFHS still holds a monthly workplace diabetes clinic at the headquarters location. Austin said he would have liked to have more assembly plant workers participate in the program. He noted that the time commitment was difficult for workers to manage in the manufacturing environment. “That was one of the things we really struggled with,” he said. Assembly-line workers generally had to schedule clinic appointments for the start or end of their shift. Other workers at the plant, such as pipefitters and electricians, had more flexibility but still needed to work the appointments into their workday. “When we were at headquarters, we were able to spend as much as an hour with the employees,” Austin said. “In the manufacturing environment, we don’t have that luxury. We were lucky to get 30 minutes” per session. Even though the enrollment numbers were relatively small, the work-site program led to positive changes for participants.” For example, 15 of the assembly plant workers with diabetes were not regularly monitoring their blood glucose levels when they started the program, he said. When they enrolled, these workers received monitors and began to check their blood sugar levels regularly. The program identified one worker with previously undiagnosed diabetes. Two other workers made the decision to start taking insulin, and one employee started using an insulin pump, Austin said. W W W.D R U GTO P I C S .C O M 20 DRUG TOPICS Januar y 2009 COURTESY CHRYSLER, STERLING HEIGHTS http://www.drugtopics.com http://WWW.DRUGTOPICS.COM
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Drug Topics - January 2009 Drug Topics - January 2009 Contents Letters Up Front Up Front in Depth Community Practice Drug Pipeline: What to Watch in 2009 OTC Community-Aquired MRSA Infections New Products Viewpoint Drug Topics - January 2009 Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Topics - January 2009 (Page Cover1) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Topics - January 2009 (Page Cover2) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Topics - January 2009 (Page 1) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Topics - January 2009 (Page 2) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Topics - January 2009 (Page 3) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page 4) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page 5) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page 6) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page 7) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page 8) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page 9) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page 10) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H1) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H2) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H1) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H2) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H3) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H4) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H5) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H6) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H7) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page H8) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Contents (Page 13) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Up Front (Page 14) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Up Front (Page 15) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Up Front (Page 16) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Up Front (Page 17) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Up Front in Depth (Page 18) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Up Front in Depth (Page 19) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community Practice (Page 20) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community Practice (Page 20a) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community Practice (Page 20b) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community Practice (Page 21) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Pipeline: What to Watch in 2009 (Page 22) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Pipeline: What to Watch in 2009 (Page 23) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Pipeline: What to Watch in 2009 (Page 24) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Pipeline: What to Watch in 2009 (Page 25) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Pipeline: What to Watch in 2009 (Page 26) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Drug Pipeline: What to Watch in 2009 (Page 27) Drug Topics - January 2009 - OTC (Page 28) Drug Topics - January 2009 - OTC (Page 29) Drug Topics - January 2009 - OTC (Page 30) Drug Topics - January 2009 - OTC (Page 31) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 32) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 33) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 34) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 35) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 36) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 37) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 38) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 39) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 40) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Community-Aquired MRSA Infections (Page 41) Drug Topics - January 2009 - New Products (Page 42) Drug Topics - January 2009 - New Products (Page 43) Drug Topics - January 2009 - New Products (Page 44) Drug Topics - January 2009 - New Products (Page 45) Drug Topics - January 2009 - New Products (Page 46) Drug Topics - January 2009 - New Products (Page 47) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Viewpoint (Page 48) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Viewpoint (Page Cover3) Drug Topics - January 2009 - Viewpoint (Page Cover4)
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.