Abstract 4140299: A Model-Sharing Approach for Quality Improvement of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease

INTRODUCTION: Opportunities exist to improve health outcomes for patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD), or at an increased risk for CVD. The American Heart Association (AHA) established the Target: Type 2 Diabetes (TT2D) national award program to recognize hospitals and health centers for adherence to guidelines for diabetes and CVD. To focus on gaps and strategies for team-based care, coordination of care, and guideline-implementation models for diabetes and CVD, the AHA launched the TT2D Quality Collective in 2023. METHODS: Three health systems and three Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) were invited to participate in the TT2D Quality Collective from January 2023 – February 2025. Participation includes targeted technical support for diabetes program management, peer-supported model sharing and integration, and ongoing quality improvement support as part of AHA’s inpatient and outpatient TT2D award programs. Peer-supported model sharing is conducted through nine quarterly meetings for each Quality Collective participant to first share a successful component of their diabetes care pathway, followed by space to solicit feedback, comments, and/or suggestions for identified challenges related to diabetes care within their respective systems. Technical and quality improvement support includes seven system-specific meetings with AHA staff to inform deeper discussions around site-level barriers and strategies related to guideline-directed care. Questionnaires are administered during the initiative - at baseline, midpoint, and end - to monitor quality improvement change over time associated with participation in the initiative. RESULTS: Findings are displayed in Table 1. CONCLUSION: Diverse health systems can utilize peer-supported model-sharing and rapid feedback to identify opportunities, solutions to known barriers, and resources to improve implementation of guideline-directed care for type 2 diabetes and CVD. Initial findings from this ongoing initiative reveal the need for deeper discussions in areas such as (1) availability, access, and barriers to evidence-based pharmacological treatments, (2) treatment decision-making algorithms, (3) full integration and utilization of pharmacists as part of team-based care, and (4) strategies for increasing patient engagement in diabetes self-management.