New Ideas on Digital Diabetes Technologies
November 9, 2023 · Andy Reynolds
Digital diabetes technologies (DDT) offer new ways to monitor and manage diabetes. But there is no widely accepted system for quality standards and measures for DDT performance or effectiveness.
We’re working with the American Diabetes Association and the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to change that.
The stakes are high: Diabetes affects the lives of more than 537 million people worldwide and strains health care budgets everywhere.
A Call for Standardization
In March 2023, NCQA and the American Diabetes Association invited a panel of health care experts to a roundtable discussion on DDT standards and quality measures.
The result is a white paper—Digital Technology-Enabled Care Models for Diabetes: A Framework for Developing Quality Standards and Measures.
The paper focuses on three key areas:
- A new approach to grouping DDTs that highlights how well technologies support DDT care models. This includes categorizing DDTs according to one of three care models: patient-facing apps and tools, virtual self-management and support, virtual diabetes care.
- Identifying a DDT framework that allows stakeholders to assess how well DDTs support a care model in five categories defined by the National Institutes of Health: technical properties; safety; efficacy and/or effectiveness; economic attributes or impacts; and social, legal, ethical and/or political impacts.
- Developing quality standards and measures that focus on how well a DDT supports a care model, and how it affects the model’s impact on the quality of care and health outcomes.
Developing DDT standards and measures promises to improve the quality of diabetes care and bring more equitable care to millions of people who have diabetes.
Next Steps
To learn more about how to advance diabetes care:
- Download the DDT white paper.
- Learn about our Diabetes Recognition Program.
- Watch our October 2023 webinar on Diabetes Recognition Program Updates.
