Prevent Diabetes Mellitus PreDM Clinical Decision Support Intervention in Community Health Centers

Eighty six million U.S. adults have prediabetes, and up to 75% of them will eventually develop diabetes. Landmark clinical trials have established that intensive lifestyle interventions (ILI) and metformin are safe and effective treatments to prevent or delay diabetes in adults with prediabetes and overweight/obesity. Despite being included in expert clinical guidelines, these treatments are rarely used and few studies have explored how to promote their uptake in practice. One possible approach for increasing adoption of ILI and metformin in primary care includes clinical decision support (CDS), which uses electronic systems to create tailored recommendations for evidence-based clinical care. While a large body of evidence demonstrates that CDS can improve the delivery of other recommended preventive services, this approach has not been definitively studied for ILI and metformin. The investigators plan to address this critical knowledge gap by developing and evaluating the Prevent Diabetes Mellitus Clinical Decision Support (PreDM CDS) intervention for community health center patients with prediabetes and overweight/obesity. This novel CDS engages primary care providers and clinical staff to deliver intervention components.

This study tests the potential for CDS to promote diabetes prevention and weight loss efforts in primary care. The current study objectives were to: 1) interview providers about their preferences for CDS focused on prediabetes; 2) develop a novel CDS tool, the Prediabetes CDS (PreDM CDS), promoting evidence-based care for prediabetes; and 3) conduct a pilot evaluation of the novel CDS tool using electronic health record data. Study investigators hypothesize that the proposed PreDM CDS will increase patient's adoption of ILI and metformin, producing modest weight loss and improvements in other cardiometabolic markers.