Newswise — In November, Lurie Children’s and Northwestern University co-hosted the 2024 T1D Exchange Learning Session in Chicago. The T1D Exchange Quality Improvement Collaborative (QIC) brings together clinics across the United States, connecting experts that collectively treat over 100,000 individuals with Type 1 diabetes. The clinics share data and best practices to measurably improve the lives of individuals with Type 1 diabetes. By participating in the QIC, clinicians can identify areas for improvement, develop projects making small changes in care, and measure the outcomes. The changes can then be used to help create best practices to share among diabetes centers. Clinical teams attend the two-day T1DX-QI Learning Session to present improvement techniques and share experiences implementing new practices with one another.
At the Learning Session, the Lurie Children’s Division of Endocrinology team presented five posters and an oral presentation. Naomi Fogel, MD, and Laura Levin, DO, also participated in a panel discussion about diabetes care in Chicago. The team continues to prioritize quality improvement work for diabetes, with current projects focused on increasing CGM use (with a specific lens on equity), increasing psychosocial screening, decreasing DKA in patients on insulin pumps, improving education leading up to transition of care, and increasing screening of family members for Type 1 diabetes. Additionally, Monica Bianco, MD, is co-leading a pilot group for the T1D Exchange that will focus on quality improvement in Type 2 Diabetes.
During the Learning Session, Lurie Children’s Diabetes Program received the 2024 T1D Exchange Outstanding Pediatric Team Award. The Diabetes Program was selected from a group of more than 60 endocrinology centers participating in the T1DX-QI network. The award is given to well-rounded, highly-engaged pediatric teams with diverse team roles that demonstrate a working knowledge of QI methodologies in a clinical setting. In addition to recognizing depth of knowledge and demonstrating measurable improvements in CGM and HbA1c, the T1D Exchange also acknowledged the team’s contributions to T1D Exchange special projects, working groups, committees, and contributing to collaborative knowledge through publications and presentations at national conferences.
The Lurie Children's Diabetes Program, led by Dr. Fogel, cares for over 1,200 children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes and over 600 with Type 2 diabetes in a multidisciplinary team approach that includes physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, certified diabetes care and education specialists, dietitians, social workers and psychologists.