November 22, 2002

Nesson award presented to MGH diabetes program

The MGH Diabetes Primary Care Improvement Program received a Nesson Award for collaboration from Partners Community HealthCare, Inc. (PCHI) at the group's annual meeting in September. The award recognizes the hospital's multidisciplinary effort to apply innovative disease strategies to improve type 2 diabetes care.

Established in 2000, the Nesson Awards are presented in honor of H. Richard Nesson, MD, former president of Partners and founder of PCHI, who conceived the idea of the organization as a means to integrate and manage patient care. The awards recognize programs that exemplify PCHI's best practices and its mission to enhance both the physician-patient relationship and the physician experience through innovation in medical practice and collaboration among physicians and medical centers. The Nesson Awards are given annually in three areas: collaboration, innovation and excellence.

The MGH team responsible for the diabetes program, which began in 1997, includes General Medicine, the Diabetes Center and the Computer Science Lab, with support from MGH Primary Care Operations Improvement and the Clinical Research Program. The team conducted research to test a web-based decision support tool called the Diabetes Management Application (DMA). The team also developed a paper-based version of the DMA to ensure that caregivers had access to the tool when a patient was present and could use it to discuss treatment goals.
"The practice of medicine is always evolving, and the best kinds of care focus on finding new and better ways to meet patients' needs," says Thomas Lee, MD, chief medical officer for PCHI. "This program is an excellent example of that philosophy."