SEEDS - A NEW PATHWAY TO INCREASE SUCCESSFUL DEVICE USE IN PEOPLE WITH DIABETES

SEEDS A NEW PATHWAY TO INCREASE SUCCESSFUL DEVICE USE IN PEOPLE WITH DIABETES

BY ANGELA J. KARAMI

Each year, new diabetes technologies come to the market and bring new hope to people with diabetes and their families. Diabetes devices, such as continuous glucose monitoring systems, connected insulin pens, insulin pumps, and hybrid closed-loop systems, can improve outcomes in people with diabetes. Unfortunately, these technologies are underused by healthcare professionals that prescribe them. This is particularly true within primary care practices, which provide care for most people with diabetes. Primary care providers often report lack of confidence in prescribing these devices and too many resources available to successfully learn about them. Difficulties starting devices exist among all providers that care for people with diabetes, with too many resources, lack of support, and too little time cited as common reasons.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded a 2.7 million dollar grant to work towards resolving these issues in a new project, Shared Empowerment for Early Device Success (SEEDS). SEEDS is led by Dr. Laurel Messer and her research team at the Barbara Davis Center and University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine. SEEDS has one main goal: to develop an online platform to aid providers with the confidence they need to start patients with diabetes on devices that will help them. Messer states, “This is an exciting opportunity to help other healthcare professionals get comfortable with diabetes devices that we use all the time at Barbara Davis Center. Everyone with diabetes should have opportunities to try new devices to make their diabetes easier to manage.”

The project is joined by medical software company DreaMed Diabetes in creating the digital platform. The company has previously developed an automated system for diabetes device insulin dosing recommendations, which will be built upon for the SEEDS project. Automated insulin delivery recommendation support for new insulin pump technologies will be combined with SEEDS components developed by investigators at the university that will support healthcare providers and people with diabetes through the process of starting new devices.

The aims of the project are to find what makes starting devices easier and difficult in a sustainable way through the SEEDS pathway, test the pathway in healthcare settings that care for people with diabetes, and demonstrate practicability of incorporating the model into current healthcare workflow. The SEEDS pathway will be assessed in a series of five parts, outlined below:

The first part will consist of a start-up workshop between diabetes device experts at the Barbara Davis Center and providers recruited for the SEEDS project to give practical knowledge before starting the model in their practice. Providers enrolled in the project will recruit patients with diabetes from their clinic and will use tools in the platform to select the best device for their patient. Healthcare providers will receive support in device ordering, prescribing, and information on how the patient will get the device. The goal of SEEDS is to support the provider and their patients as much as possible during this process, supplying detailed instructions and resources where they may be needed. Once the patient receives their new device, patients will receive training and follow-up visits to support their success with the device. For insulin pumps, including hybrid closed-loop systems, providers will be supported with DreaMed’s software to begin insulin dosing recommendations and adjustments during follow-up visits. The software suggestions will be combined with behavioral and shared discussion recommendations that will be developed by Messer and physicians at the Barbara Davis Center and CU Department of Family Medicine. Educational resources will be available to patients on the SEEDS platform in an educational library.

The SEEDS project will plan to enroll fifteen healthcare providers once the online platform has been developed, with five providers from each primary care, adult endocrinology, and pediatric endocrinology. Each of these providers will then recruit five of their own patients with diabetes to test the practical use of SEEDS. The project is planned to take place over three years with a long-term goal in creating a new care model that will benefit people with diabetes and their providers to start them on diabetes technologies.

Stay on the lookout for updates on this project. For additional information, contact project coordinator Angela Karami, at Angela.Karami@cuanschutz.edu, or the project director Dr. Laurel Messer, at Laurel.Messer@cuanschutz.edu.