Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of shared medical appointments for people with pre-diabetes compared with a group of patients receiving usual care. Shared medical appointments are typically delivered in a medical clinic by physicians and other health care providers. Within the context of this study, shared medical appointments consisted of patients consulting with their doctors one-on-one and then joining a group of similar patients to set goals and review lab results with the same family physician and a diabetes educator. Researchers also assessed the impact of attending a shared medical appointment versus care-as-usual on chronic conditions such as high blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure.
Over 24 months, patients who took part in shared medical appointments lost more weight than those who received usual care. By the conclusion of the study period, patients who attended shared medical appointments showed better outcomes in managing the aforementioned chronic conditions than those patients who received usual care.
Researchers concluded that shared medical appointments may provide an effective model of treatment for patients with pre-diabetes. As the diabetic epidemic continues, the authors call for more research using shared medical appointments to manage prediabetes in health care systems.