First Choice Health in East Hartford is among 10 community health centers in the U.S. to receive a $100,000 national award for innovation in diabetes care, according to an announcement this week.
The Innovations in Care Award was given at the 2016 Community Health Institute and Expo in Chicago. The awards acknowledge innovative approaches to the prevention and treatment of diseases that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.
The awards are part of of the BD Helping Build Healthy Communities initiative — a collaboration between BD, a medical technology company; Direct Relief, a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian medical aid with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergency situations; and the National Association of Community Health Centers. The initiative includes a commitment by BD of approximately $5 million in cash and product for community health centers and clinics nationwide, according to a news release from Direct Relief.
First Choice Health Centers is expanding a diabetes-care program through First Choice Focus on Diabetes Initiative 2016, the release said. The initiative expands education, nutrition, and exercise classes to the health center’s entire population with diabetes, including the oversight of a diabetes care coordinator who is also a registered nurse.
The program addresses the substantial comorbidity between depression and diabetes by integrating a behavioral health specialist into the care team, the release added, citing the value of the model’s focus on tracking, collecting, interpreting and maintaining information in electronic form.
