Study highlights benefits of electronic specialist-led diabetes model of care

Early diabetes management intervention with an electronic specialist-led diabetes model of care reduces glucose levels and the incidence of healthcare-associated infections in surgical inpatients.

Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia assessed more than 1,370 admissions between February 2021 and December 2021.

Participants were randomly assigned to standard diabetes care or the intervention, which consisted of an early consultation with a specialist inpatient diabetes team using electronic tools for patient identification, communication of recommendations, and therapy intensification.

Approximately 680 of the participants were assigned to early intervention and 691 to standard diabetes care.

Eligible participants were adults admitted to a surgical ward during the study with either known diabetes or newly detected hyperglycaemia.

According to the results, the early intervention group achieved a lower median patient-day mean glucose of 8.2 mmol/L compared with 8.6 mmol/L in the control group for an estimated difference of –0.3 mmol/L.

Additionally, the results show that the incidence of healthcare-associated infections was lower in the intervention group compared to the standard diabetes care group.

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