19 January 2016
One year ago Diabetes UK launched a new innovation; information prescriptions are designed to support rapid interventions in key diabetes outcomes and give clinicians a new tool to tackle the mounting pressure that diabetes is placing on the NHS.
The good news is that we can now confidently say that information prescriptions can make a difference to the effectiveness of routine care delivery and do motivate patients to act.
The key themes emerging from our evaluation demonstrate that information prescriptions:
Change clinical behaviour
The information prescriptions automatically alert clinicians to patients who have diabetes and are outside the NICE targets for blood pressure, HbA1c or cholesterol. We have case studies that show that this is prompting clinicians to intervene more proactively and identify patients who may have slipped through the net for many years.Â
Increase patient understanding of key concepts
The information prescriptions are written in plain English and feedback shows that many patients say the information prescription was the first time anyone explained their condition to them (clinicians are clear that it is not, but clearly the information prescription was the first explanation that hit home).
Prompt patient action
Anecdotally we are hearing of patients significantly improving key outcomes. The information prescriptions include a unique link to more information on Diabetes UK’s website- we know that over 13,000 patients last year have been sufficiently motivated by the receipt of an information prescription to access more information on managing their diabetes, showing that they are working as a prompt to action.
To see how you can use information prescriptions in your routine care and to support annual reviews read ourFAQsor read some of ourcase studiesshowing how they are making a difference.
