Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Diabetes, Education, Outcomes & Safety / 12.06.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bradley Gray, PhD Senior Health Services Researcher American Board of Internal Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This study is part of an ongoing effort to improve and validate ABIM’s MOC process through the use of real data that is ongoing here at ABIM. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?  Response: The paper examines the association between MOC status and a set of HEDIS process quality measures for internists twenty years past the time they initially certified. An example of one HEDIS performance measure we looked at was percentage of patients with diabetes that had twice annual HbA1c testing. The key findings of the paper are that physicians who maintained their certification had better scores on 5 of 6 HEDIS performance measures than similar physicians who did not maintain their certification. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, General Medicine, Heart Disease / 03.11.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Arnold Ng, MBBS, PhD Department of Cardiology Princess Alexandra Hospital University of Queensland, Australia Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Arnold: The WHO and American Diabetes Association currently recommends the use of HbA1c >=6.5% as a diagnostic criterion for diabetes. HbA1c is advantageous over fasting plasma glucose and glucose tolerance testing by avoiding the need for patient fasting and inconvenient patient preparation. In addition, patients who are acutely unwell (e.g. STEMI) may develop stress hyperglycemia, complicating the diagnosis of diabetes. It is currently unclear if HbA1c (indicative of overall glycemic control) or fasting plasma glucose predicts worse left ventricular function after acute STEMI. The present study demonstrated that HbA1c identified approximately another 20% of previously undiagnosed patients as diabetic. Furthermore, the present study was first to demonstrate that HbA1c, not fasting plasma glucose, was independently associated with more impaired LV diastolic function and elevated filling pressures after STEMI. (more…)