How to Engage Diabetes Patients and Reduce A1C scores by 10% with Dr. Tara Burnett-Lewis
Dr. Tara Burnett-Lewis discusses how shared medical appointments (SMAs) helped diabetes patients at the Johnston County Public Health Department in North Carolina, lower their A1C scores by 10%. Johnston County has a very rural population so SMAs give patients a sense of community and help them realize they are not alone. Tara shares how peer support helps build the patients’ confidence in their ability to manage their health and maintain active and fulfilling lives.
In addition, Tara talks about the value of SMAs and lays out the steps you can take to create your own SMA program.
Today’s Bright Spots in Health Podcast episode is sponsored by Revel Health, which is innovating how healthcare organizations think about pop health and consumer engagement. In brief, Revel Health focuses on understanding people. They know the populations you struggle with like Medicaid or Medicare Advantage, are NOT about population health — it’s about the individual. And this is the most important point I want to make, they approach healthcare differently, by understanding the values and belief systems of the individual, so they can create a personalized plan to drive positive behavioral change. It’s really a very fresh way of thinking about engagement and SDOH. If you have ever talked to the most sophisticated agencies on Madison Avenue, the ones that represent the biggest consumer brands you know like Coke, Amazon, Marriott, Apple, you name it … they take a much more sophisticated approach than we do in health care, to identifying consumers, and then understanding the consumer’s values well enough to truly influence behavior change, in a way that benefits the brand they represent. We in healthcare have not been that sophisticated in marketing to the patients who are at the highest risk of costing the most money. Until now. Check them out at www.revel-health.com.
